Legends United
by CadeXHybrid
Summary: When five evil beings from the bowels of Oblivion return to Earth to spread chaos, Crash Bandicoot will need the help of gods themselves. With their power, they can unite the legendary heroes from across the universe for an all-out war against these evil threats. Video-game Character Mash-Up. Main villains are OCs.
1. Help Wanted

**Chapter 1: Help Wanted**

"Well, Sonic the Hedgehog just rejected me," said Jeycko, face suspended in disbelief. His partner, Orphco, silently mirrored his sentiment. Both blue-skinned men displayed exhausted expressions, as if sleep had long been deprived from either man.

Jeycko, a pale blue man with curly blonde hair, leaned forward against the rooftop's border, sighing as he gazed up at the half moon. It must have been at least fifteen minutes to midnight, according to San Diego's Pacific Time. Orphco soon joined his dejected partner on the border, offering his words of wisdom, "Perhaps we caught Sonic at an inopportune time."

"Dr. Robotnik's been in prison for four years," Jeycko countered. "What could possibly be eating up so much of his time?"

Orphco, a baldheaded man with darker blue skin, tactfully replied, "Actually…I was talking about the current hour. It is almost midnight after all."

Smiling sheepishly, Jeycko only peered downward at the dark, vacant streets. "I honestly thought more heroes would be up to the task, seeing as how their own planet is in _imminent danger. _Geez…when did heroes become so…reluctant?"

Remaining optimistic, Orphco pointed out, "So far, the Cooper Gang has obliged to defend Earth. And as we speak, the others scour the universe for more of the heroes we've been studying. There is bound to be someone courageous enough help this world."

"That's the thing, though. If no one from this planet cares enough to do something to save it, why would anyone millions of light-years away want to get involved? I mean, on this planet alone, who've we been rejected by so far?"

"Um…well, first, we approached Mario, and it's understandable that he said no. He's engaged to Peach, and he promised he wouldn't do any fighting until after the wedding. Then we talked to Nathan Drake, Chris Redfield, Johnny Cage, Chun Li, Earthworm Jim…" Remembering more, Orphco added, "And Dante, Leon Kennedy, Cole MacGrath, Solid Snake, and Viewtiful Joe."

"I can't _believe_ Viewtiful Joe said no…" Attempting to figure out what they were doing wrong, Jeycko remarked, "It's like they're all too busy with other 'hero work,' like Dante and Drake, or they're in the middle of filming for a blockbuster flick, like Viewtiful Joe and Johnny Cage…"

"Or they simply don't wish to partake," Orphco suggested meekly.

Suddenly perking up, Jeycko asked, "Hey, wait…aren't there some bandicoots who saved Earth a few times before? You think they're busy?"

"That depends. How recent was their latest adventure?"

Jeycko trailed off, "Um…?"


	2. Birthday

**Chapter 2: Birthday**

Sometime in the future…

A pair of green eyes slowly opened.

"Check it out, Aku Aku. I think she's waking up," Crunch said, peering down at the waking bandicootess.

The setting sun illuminated the hospital room through an open window with an orange hue. A twenty-year-old Coco sat up from her cot and yawned, moving some of the blonde hair from her eyes. After gently rubbing her eyes a little, she took note of the two family members standing by her bedside. To be more specific, one stood while the other floated above the ground.

"Hey Crunch, yo Aku Aku," Coco greeted tiredly with a smile.

Crunch smiled back at her. "Rise and shine. How're you feeling, Mom?"

"Pretty breezy, which means the drugs are working fine," Coco answered, yawning again. With a raised eyebrow, she glanced around the small room once before asking, "So where's Crash?"

Aku Aku responded, "Last I checked, he was in the cafeteria wolfing down pancakes, and they don't even serve pancakes here."

"Yeah…that means Crash smuggled in his own," Coco surmised. "He still won't tell me where he hides 'em…"

Coco looked over and spotted a cushiony crib housing a sleeping, green-haired baby by her bedside. Excitedly getting out of bed, she picked up the baby and sat back down on the bed, studying every inch of her newborn.

Coco started with a grin, evidently proud of her fruit, "Guys, I know this sounds crazy, but I think this thing was living inside of me for nine months! I made one handsome little boy, didn't I?"

Aku Aku commented, "He's lucky to get his mother's looks."

Still rocking with her baby, Coco asked offhandedly, "By any chance, did that no-good, deadbeat, stupid-faced excuse of a man show up?"

"Are you talking about the father?" Crunch pried tactlessly.

"No, actually I was talking about one of the Mario brothers—have ya seen them?" Coco retorted with enough sarcasm to bury Crunch alive.

While Crunch slowly realized he'd been given a poisonous bite, Aku Aku took the opportunity to answer her, "Actually, he did come by. He didn't come all the way in here, but I did see him signing the paternal acknowledgement forms in the lobby. Then he left."

"Wow, that's almost responsible of him." Wanting to get off the subject, Coco inquired, "So do I get one of those pouch things to carry the baby in? Those seem really useful in case I wanna do pull-ups, practice yoga, or ride my jet ski while I babysit."

Aku Aku shook his head and responded, "Sorry. Either that trait was removed when Cortex altered your DNA, or you never possessed it in the first place."

"Aw, man, that sucks…" The football-sized infant woke up in Coco's arms, peeking up at his mother with marble-like green eyes. Shaking her head, Coco said dejectedly, "Sorry kid, no pouch for you."

Floating over to peer down at the baby too, Aku Aku decided to ask, "So have you settled on a name for the lad yet?"

"Nope," Coco replied drearily. "I've just been calling him Baby-Number-One the whole time. I just can't think of a good name."

Crunch suggested proudly, "I say ya name him after my Uncle Otis, a true hero at cleaning out the sewers!"

Putting on a fake smile, Coco stumbled to say, "Um…I'll think about it, Crunch."

The witchdoctor told the blonde bandicootess, "Crash keeps saying that he really wants you to name the baby something that starts with a 'C'."

Coco sighed. "Isn't that tradition getting old yet?

"Not according to Crash," Aku Aku replied. "Believe it or not, he said he wants to have three more kids with Naomi and call them all 'C' names."

Crunch suggested with a smile, "How about a nice, wholesome name like 'Christian'?"

"Too religious," Coco nullified with a frown.

"What about 'Connor'?" Aku Aku asked.

"I don't want any Terminators from the future on a mission to kill him," Coco cancelled.

Crunch tried, "How about…um…oh, how about Cole?"

Coco gasped. "What if he gets electrical powers and gets hunted down by his future self?"

Crunch tried again, "Okay…then how's 'Castro'?"

"Yeah, I'd like to receive a call at 3 a.m. saying my son Castro has three hostages held up at a 7-Eleven."

Irritated, Aku Aku suggested, "Then how does 'Sonny the Baby' sound to you?"

Coco considered that name for a moment, but then said, "Sounds too much like Sonic the Hedgehog, who I hate."

Aku Aku sighed and muttered, "I'm sure the sentiment is mutual…"

* * *

**-X-**

Back in the present…

A year and a half had passed since the last threat to the inhabitants of Wumpa Island occurred. For the most part, things around the island had been quiet, save a few Titan feuds. And yes, the collection of trash from both the Doominator and Cortex space station was still lying around. Unfortunately, the bandicoots' laziness was still intact.

A yawn escaped freely from the mouth of Crash. After scratching a bit, he laid down on a blue beach towel, hands tucked under his neck with elbows pointing out. Today was just another humid morning to the furry little marsupial. He was in the middle of carrying out his daily routine: wake up, eat whatever, relax, explore, relax and go home. But as he lay there, carefree and untroubled, three tricksters schemed in a nearby bush.

"Alright, are we ready?" said the young, blonde bandicootess named Coco.

"Let's go over the plan one last time," Crunch suggested, holding a candle-lit birthday cake.

"Crunch, we literally went over it fifteen seconds ago," Coco complained, giving him a disapproving look.

"We should probably keep our voices down or we'll wake Crash," Aku Aku whispered. Turning to Crunch, he instructed, "Coco will place the new jacket on Crash while he's sleeping. You're just going to stand there with the cake, and we'll all yell surprise on the count of three."

"Got that, Crunch?" Coco asked impatiently.

Shrugging, Crunch said, "Seems simple enough, although I'm pretty sure this cake will disappear the moment Crash whiffs it."

With that said, Coco moved forward with the scheme, tiptoeing around the bush with Crunch and Aku Aku following close behind. Taking the new jacket in both hands, Coco lightly tossed it over the birthday bandicoot, who was currently busy napping on his back.

Aku Aku counted down, "Three, two, one—"

_"Surprise!_ _Happy seventeenth birthday!"_

Crash sprang to life with the force of a medieval catapult. He was so sure that his enemies were trying a sneak-attack on him that he instinctively commenced his tornado-like spin attack, heading straight for his frightened family.

Without thinking, Crunch impulsively tossed the cake at the rapidly spinning bandicoot in an effort to slow him down. Once that pastry came within range of the raging cyclone, that entire section of Wumpa Island felt the cake's revenge.

Once Crash had calmed down and the flying icing cleared, Aku Aku, Crunch, Coco, and Crash were caked in…well, you know.

Frowning beneath the coat of cake and icing, Coco began, "So, yeah, I'm glad we went over that small part of the plan, Crunch. You know, the part where you hold the cake instead of tossing it."

Sheepishly smiling with a larger piece of cake perched on his nose, Crunch apologized, "Sorry, I—"

"Zip it," Coco verbally disdained. Turning to Crash, who was putting forth his best effort to lick icing from his right ear, she informed her brother, "Your new jacket's on the ground, Crash. It's your birthday gift."

Looking down, Crash spotted a golden, leather biker's jacket messily sprawled out on the sand below. Snatching it up, Crash ignored the fact that the jacket had somehow miraculously missed being defiled in the cake storm and tried it on. Like a glove, it fit.

Aku Aku added, "We knew that your old biker jacket got ruined during that last Titan insurrection, so we all pitched in to get you a custom-made new one."

"Yeah, yeah, happy birthday—you owe me a treatment at the hair salon," said the displeased bandicootess.

Crash had to admit that his gift's leathery material hugged him perfectly, especially around the sleeves. But what Crash really liked about the jacket was the blue words, "Crash N' Burn," stitched on the back.

Aku Aku informed, "That's not all, Crash. Where would you like to go tonight for your birthday celebration?"

"It can be anywhere you want," Crunch said.

As the birthday-boy went into thinking mode, a white cloud poofed to existence over his head, and an image of him with his head stuck in dirt appeared. As he thought about that idea, a look of satisfaction spread across Crash's face.

Crunch swatted away Crash's thought cloud and suggested, "I say we go to that bikers' club I was telling you about and show off that new jacket!"

Smiling, Crash gave a thumbs-up in agreement.

Turning to Coco, Aku Aku asked, "How does that sound to you? Any objections?"

Shaking her head, Coco shrugged and answered, "Nope. I just hope my birthday—which is next month—is just as special as Crash's."

Nodding, Crunch stated, "Great, I'll get the bikes ready."

* * *

_Hello there! I am Aku Aku, and throughout this fic, I'll be providing you with short bios on all of the new (important) characters that frequently appear. Some characters may be original, so be sure to look for those. Here are the first four._

Crash Bandicoot

**Age: **17  
**Gender: **Male  
**Species: **Bandicoot

A maniacal cyclone wrapped in a hero with a side of gullibility yields the orange, hyper-active marsupial known as Crash. Some say he used to be a peace-loving bandicoot frolicking freely in the Wumpa Islands. Or are his origins a bit more complicated than that? Not much is known or remembered too clearly about him before he was taken by the evil Neo Cortex to be mutated with the Evolvo-Ray. From that event to present day is what Crash mainly remembers most. Crash first starred in _Crash Bandicoot__ 1996._

Coco Bandicoot

**Age: **15  
**Gender: **Female  
**Species: **Bandicoot

The younger sibling of Crash, Coco Bandicoot is a computer genius who is less of a maniac than her older brother. She happens to be one the few people, like Crunch and I, who can understand Crash's gibberish and have the most patience for him. While her past is as mysterious as Crash's, she too loves a descent amount of fun and is always ready to defend the good. Coco first starred in _Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back__ 1997._

Crunch Bandicoot

**Age: **18  
**Gender: **Male  
**Species: **(Super) Bandicoot

Although he isn't related to Crash or Coco, he is apart of the bandicoot family. Posing as the brawn of the group, Crunch is actually a good-natured bandicoot. However, he wasn't always with the good guys. In an attempt to annihilate Crash once and for all, Neo Cortex captured and brainwashed Crunch and turned him into an unstoppable super bandicoot, with the help of the Elemental Masks. After restoring Crunch's peaceful disposition, Crash, Coco, and I decided to make him part of the family. A notable feature on Crunch is his robotic arm, which can transform into a laser cannon. Crunch Bandicoot first starred as the villain in _Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex_ _2001._

Aku Aku

**Age: **?  
**Gender: **? (Male?)  
**Species: **?

I am the conscience, guidance, and guardian of Crash, Coco, and Crunch. Although I appear to be a wooden plank with feathers jutting out my edges, I am actually a mask with the spirit of an ancient witchdoctor. I get around by floating a few feet above the ground, and believe me, I have power. I starred alongside Crash in _Crash Bandicoot__ 1996._


	3. The Lost and Shammed

**Chapter 3: The Lost and Shammed**

Night air rushed past Crash Bandicoot's furry chin like velvet. The bikes' thundering engines were an angelic chorus to his fuzzy ears poking out the holes of his helmet. Sporting his new Crash N' Burn jacket, Crash was joyfully cruising the interisland bridge between his island and Wumpa City. On the seat behind him was Aku Aku, who was actually floating inches above the leather seat, but still enjoying the ride. A few yards behind them were Crunch and Coco riding on Crunch's own custom bike.

After five minutes of driving across the bridge to the other island, they arrived in an urban area. Most of the nearby buildings were independent businesses like antique shops, restaurants, pool holes, and maybe a few motels. Driving deeper into the island's city, they noticed more slums appearing until they finally found the tavern they were looking for. They pulled into the wide, dirt parking lot outside of the pub and noticed a bunch of motorbikes parked neatly outside the front in a straight line. Still sitting outside on their bikes, they could hear the clearly audible classic rock music playing from within. Crunch was the first to hop off his bike, followed by an eager Crash.

Not liking the atmosphere of the tavern, Coco started, "Maaaybe we should find another place to go to celebrate your birthday, Crash. I think I saw a Dominoes a few roads down."

"No—that was actually a Pizza Hut," the witch-doctor corrected.

Coco recoiled. "Ugh…never mind…"

As they approached the deafeningly loud bar, Crunch suddenly halted the rest of the party. "All right, we might need a game plan before Crash does something to get us kicked out. Oh, and I should probably warn you about this gang that usually likes to hang around here."

Aku Aku stated, "I might be on Coco's side about going to another place if gangs are involved."

Waving his hand dismissively, Crunch said, "Trust me, this gang's no big deal. I've never actually fought them myself, but this guy named Huegan tells me they're a bunch of idiots who shouldn't be taken seriously."

Thinking it over, Aku Aku nodded and said, "All right. Crash should be able to have fun with that, and that's all that matters tonight."

Taking a deep breath, Coco said excitedly, "Let's go act tough, boys."

Within the biker's tavern, there was drinking of lemonade at the bar, people shooting pool at a few tables in the back, and booth seats lining the brick walls. For the club's décor, license plates, random motorcycle parts, and a singing mechanical fish or two were nailed to various portions of the wall.

"Let's sit at the bar," Crunch proposed, making his way over to said bar where a few fellow anthropoids sat, sipping lemonades. Crash, Coco, and Aku Aku followed suit, taking up the last seats in the bar.

As the four took their seats, a crocodile seated at the bar groaned and muttered to himself, "Oh boy, they're gonna wish they never sat there…"

A grizzly bear sitting next to the croc nervously whispered to him, "They must be new here…"

The elderly wombat bartender got one look at Crunch before cheerfully greeting, "Long time no see, Crunch!"

"Hi, Rob," Crunch greeted back.

Raising an eyebrow, Aku Aku asked, "You know the bartender? How often do you come here?"

"Easy, all they serve is lemonade here," Crunch said defensively.

Rob, the wombat bartender, added, "Yeah, I got my liquor license revoked when one too many minors walked out and narc'ed on me. I guess no one believes in verbal agreements anymore. Ah, well." Fulfilling his duties as bartender, Rob asked, "Can I get you kids anything nonalcoholic to drink?"

Perking up, Coco asked, "Yeah, can I get a chocolate milk?"

Rob nodded and said, "Sure can do, but the milk's been expired for two years."

Narrowing her eyes, she replied slowly, "Okay…then how about a glass of OJ?"

"Of course ya can, sweetheart, but keep in mind we found a dead roach floating in the OJ this morning."

Drumming her hands on the bar impatiently, Coco said, "Right…then can I get a banana smoothie?"

Rob smiled and said, "Yes you may! But the bananas are infested with ticks and maggots."

Exhaling irritably, Coco rubbed the bridge of her nose and exclaimed, "Then can I just get a glass of water?!"

"Whatever you want, darlin'! But I hear the water around here is haunted—"

"She'll take a lemonade," Crunch interjected, cutting off Coco's imminent rage quit. "We all will."

"Comin' right up!" Rob exclaimed, turning around to fix up their drinks.

Curiously, Crunch asked, "Hey, Rob, has Huegan come back yet?"

"Haven't seen 'im," the bartender replied, filling up Crash's drink. "I think he's still doing his hitman thing in Chicago."

"What about Louie and his gang?" Crunch asked. "Have you seen them around?"

Handing all four of them their drinks, Rob answered, "Yeah, sure have. They come here every night, which reminds me – you four are sitting in their seats."

Not displaying any symptoms of apprehension in the slightest, Crunch replied nonchalantly, "Is that so? About what time do they normally get here?"

Checking his watch, Rob scratched his beard and said, "Well—"

Just then, four goons roared through the bar's front door on motorcycles, receiving encouraging cheers from the bar-goers. After they revved their way into the center of the bar, the largest biker got off his motorbike and said to no one in particular, "Don't tell me y'all started the party without me!"

The crocodile sitting at the bar pointed to them and hollered enthusiastically, "It's Louie's gang!"

"Louie's gang" consisted of four oddly matched bikers. The leader, Louie, was the purple hippopotamus, undoubtedly the largest and loudest of the gang. He'd driven in on a monstrous Harley Davidson, one that dwarfed the rest of his gang's choppers. One of Louie's followers was a tatted-up kangaroo with a pointy Mohawk. His face seemed to be locked in a perpetual glare.

Another member of the gang was a coyote, wearing the emblematic black biker's coat along with blue jeans and an oversized belt buckle. Next to him was their fourth member of the gang, a cute little chipmunk. He stood at around two and a half feet tall, and in addition to the tiny biker jacket, he wore an adorable little bandana around his head—most likely to let everybody know how serious of a gangster he was.

The purple hippopotamus had already made his way over to the bar table when he noticed the bandicoot family sitting in his gangs' seats. Most notably, Crash was sitting in his seat.

Tapping Crash's shoulder, Louie snarled, "Yo, sunshine! You're sitting in our seats!"

"Yeah, move it, ya dumb dills!" the kangaroo added in a thick Aussie accent.

Crash didn't take too kindly to the hippo and kangaroo's impolite behavior. Turning around and narrowing his eyes at Louie, he growled under his breath, ready to pounce. Crunch lazily swiveled around on his bar stool, casually glancing at the four gangsters currently getting in their faces. Aku Aku, however, didn't bother turning around to face them; he wasn't much for conflict with mortals. Meanwhile, Coco feigned obliviousness, looking around and asking, "You guys hear somethin'?"

The little chipmunk member of the gang shouted up to Coco in a squeaky voice, "We said _move it_, ya stupid bimbo!"

Immediately plucking up the furry chipmunk from the floor, Coco held him like a stuffed animal and exclaimed, "Even though you just called me an extremely rude name, you're still the cutest little thug I've seen in my life! What's your name, precious?"

Scrambling to be released from Coco's arms, the miniature gangster retorted in a heavy Brooklyn accent, "Whoa—hands off the merchandise, lady! You're rufflin' my expensive fur!" Finally managing to escape the bandicootess' reach, he landed back on the ground and pointed an accusing finger while adding, "And the name's Carter, _not_ precious!"

Meanwhile, the coyote biker had been giggling uncontrollably to himself, baring sharp pearly whites as he said, "So smooth, Carter – THIS is why you gotta be my wingman one day…And on an unrelated note, my name's Myles. What should I call you, dollface?" Grinning from pointy ear to pointy ear, Myles had extended his hand for Coco to shake, simultaneously jumping his eyebrows in every possible direction to accentuate his suavity.

Swatting Myles' questionably approaching hand away from a visibly terrified Coco, Crunch interjected heatedly, "Her name's 'fifteen years of age,' ya creep-o! Now all you scram, before I sic Crash on you!"

Upon hearing his name, Crash intentionally growled louder, glaring daggers at the unfazed hippopotamus. Louie leaned over and got nose and nose with the marsupial, clearly intimidating the smaller bandicoot, judging by the way Crash's ears drooped down. Louie uttered to Crash, "I hate to get violent, but I'm gonna start feelin' _real _punchy if the four o' yuz don't move out our seats!"

By now, everyone in the bar—the lemonade drinkers, the pool hustlers, the lonely dudes who can't get dates, and even Rob, the bartender—had all ceased in their separate activities, evidently preoccupied with the biker gang's seat situation with the Bandicoot family.

Doggedly determined to keep her seat at the bar, Coco boldly pointed out, "Look, maybe we'd be more inclined to let you sit here if your names were written anywhere on these stools."

Carter shrugged and said, "Actually, last week, I got a little tipsy off the lemonade and scribbled down one of my many aliases on one of those seats. I was doing it to impress my lady-friend with my reckless disregard for regulatory laws against vandalizing public property. I'm pretty sure my furry butt's erased it since then, but I still wrote it down!"

Heckling his little comrade, Myles taunted, "Oh man, Carter, you're such a bad egg!"

While Carter gnashed his teeth together in annoyance, Louie challenged, "I'm tired of standing up on my feet while the four of you enjoy our seats right in front of us! It's time for an old-fashioned bar-brawler, wouldn't you say, boys?"

The kangaroo grabbed a nearby glass bottle of lemonade and shattered it over the edge of the bar, pointing the sharp makeshift weapon at Aku Aku's indifferent back before shouting, "Right on, boss! D'ya reckon they'll bleed all over our bar seats?"

Ostensibly taken aback by his associate's spontaneous aggressiveness, a very perturbed Louie commanded, "Geez-a-loo, Vince, dial it back a notch! You're making us look like flippin' psychopaths! And besides, you're about to stab that floating piece of wood. What the heck damage is that gonna do?"

"None at all," Aku Aku muttered to himself, his back still turned on the quarrel.

Dropping the broken glass bottle, Vince the kangaroo sheepishly apologized, "Right…sorry, boss."

Continuing on with his threat from earlier, Louie yelled, "We're gonna knock your lights out, bandicoots. You are bandicoots, right?"

"Yep," Crash answered with one of the few words he knew.

"Good, then it's time for a beat-down—!"

Waving his hand unconcernedly, Crunch interrupted, "Hold your horses, Louie. Instead of getting all your butts handed to you in front of everybody tonight, why don't we settle on a proposition? One that involves gambling…"

Nodding slowly, Louie thought out loud, "Well…you've got me mildly interested. Please, go on…"

"Since you and your gang care so much about where you sit in this bar," Crunch began, building up immeasurable suspense within the tavern as he took a long, dramatic pause between clauses, "…then maybe you should race us for it!"

Punctuating Crunch's wager, a collective gasp escaped the mouths of the bar-goers.

"A race?" Louie repeated, one eyebrow rising higher than the other. "For the seats or the entire bar?"

"The whole bar!" Crunch asserted, standing up from his bar stool. Raising his hands submissively, he threw in just for the heck of it, "Unless you're scared…"

His manliness resting on the line, Louie shot back, "How 'bout we raise the stakes—I'll bet my bike, too!"

Jamming a finger in Louie's chest, Crunch retaliated, "Our bikes are in, too, then. I hope you're ready for a one-on-one race across the interisland bridge and back—with this guy!"

Scratching the inside of his ear, Crash rubbed his fingers together and flicked away the small accumulation of wax. Sniffing his fingers, Crash couldn't help but wonder…what it actually tasted like. Sticking out his tongue very slowly, Crash suddenly stopped and realized that all eyes were on him.

* * *

**-X-**

"Crunch," Aku Aku began, "have you ever considered it a possibility that you might be too impulsive?"

The burgundy bandicoot replied flippantly, "Why? I don't see anything wrong here. All I did was turn Crash's birthday evening into a high-stakes bet where we could lose our bikes and end up with no way to get back home. The only thing I regret is forgetting to pick up our lemonades."

Opening the visor of his helmet, Crash gave a thumbs-up as a signal for his being ready for action. Sitting on his motorcycle at the starting line of the two-mile race across the bridge, Crash was approached by his sister, who had come with some helpful advice for him.

"All right, Crash," she started, "you're about to race on a dimly lit bridge—at night—against a bloodthirsty mobster. He's gonna try some dirty moves, no doubt. Just pray he doesn't swing a metal bat against your skull while you're neck and neck…or toss napalm at your tires. Or poison you. Heck, he might just slit your throat before the race even starts. But anyway, stay focused on the road and don't forget to gloat your butt off when you win. Got it?"

Nodding, Crash then returned his focus back to the long, empty bridge ahead of him. To his right was Louie perched on his black and indigo, low-rider motorbike. The same crowd from the biker tavern had formed an audience behind the two opponents, patiently waiting for the racing event to begin.

Snapping his fingers, Louie called over an attractive tigress holding a checkered flag. After whispering something into the feline's ear, Louie received a curt nod from her and waved her off. Louie then turned his attention to the bandicoot left of him, mocking him, "You ready for some action, orange thunder? You know the route: race across the bridge, make a sharp turn, and come all the way back. Sound difficult?"

Shaking his head, Crash closed the visor of his helmet and reassigned his gaze to the two-mile long bridge ahead of him.

Smirking, Louie concluded, "Winner takes the bar as their official gang turf, not mention the other guy's chopper. Now let's do this!"

Both riders revved their engines to life, sparking a few cheers from the spectating crowd. The female feline strolled between the two racers, raising the checkered flag as she began to count down the race, "Forty nine…forty eight…forty seven…forty six…"

"You've gotta be yanking my feathers," Aku Aku complained lowly.

"Forty three…forty two…forty one…"

* * *

**-X-**

"Two…one…GO!" The girl waved her flag and Louie burst from the starting line, getting a notably lengthy head start in front of Crash, who was oddly still stationary at the start.

While Louie roared off in the distance, Coco was among the many onlookers to take note of Crash's immobilized dilemma. On closer inspection, Coco noticed that the bandicoot was totally unmoving as he sat upright in the seat of his motorcycle like a statue.

Sprinting over to Crash, Coco shrieked, "What are you doing? That fat septic tank is getting away!"

No response came from the helmed bandicoot…besides a low snoring.

Puzzled, Coco slid open Crash's visor to see him catching Z's. Smacking the bandicoot's helmet repeatedly, Coco shouted in desperation, "Wake up, wake up, _wake up!"_

"H-huh?" Crash sputtered, eyes fluttering open.

"Go! The race's already started!" Coco alerted, finally able to get a conscious response from Crash.

Regaining his bearings, Crash shot forward in pursuit of Louie, leaving Coco and the crowd behind. Flooring it until reaching the bridge's halfway point, he spotted the heavyset hippo cruising far up ahead. Like some sort of genius or something, Crash began to analyze his chances of winning: Louie's bike might be fast, but there was no doubt that his own robust weight slowed it down, judging by the way Crash was miraculously drawing nearer to the hippopotamus. If Crash made himself more aerodynamic while continuing to mash the gas pedal, he might just be able to catch up to Louie on the U-turn back.

Going along with that aerodynamic idea, Crash arched his back forward, letting his golden jacket flutter in the wind as he slowly gained on the hippo. They were nearly at the end of the bridge; Crash needed to cut the upcoming U-turn perfectly in order to gain a successful lead on Louie.

Back at the start, Crunch squinted his eyes in a fruitless effort to discern who was in the lead. Turning to the witchdoctor mask, he asked, "Yo, Aku Aku? Can you see who's winning?"

Aku Aku sardonically replied, "As much as I'd love to project my wooden, three-dimensionally carved eye balls two miles in front of me and give you a quick rundown of the race at hand, Crunch, my eyes just don't work like that, unfortunately."

Sidling up next to Crunch and Aku Aku, Carter chortled to himself and stated in his squeaky voice, "But my binoculars _do_ work like that!" Carter placed the binocs over his eyes, adjusting them to scan the bridge/racetrack. However, two seconds later, the little gangster ripped the lenses from his face, exclaiming in disgust, "What the—? Who the heck inserted dirty pictures into my binoculars?"

Myles raised his hand and cheekily answered, "Nah, those pics came with the 'nocs. Got the whole thing at a gift shop for ten bucks! Happy birthday, by the way."

Back on the bridge, Louie irritably peeked in his rearview mirror, noting how far Crash had caught up to him. He accidentally dropped his guard for a second and nearly drove into the back bumper of someone else's vehicle. Turning his attention back to the road, he clumsily swerved around it, nicking the car's rearview mirror with his handlebar.

Witnessing Louie's near-collision, Crash made sure to cleanly avoid the slow moving vehicle, now only five yards away from Louie.

Louie checked his rearview mirror again and nearly had a heart attack. The mirror reflected Crash's vulturine grin above the bandicoot's blinding headlight. Growing increasingly nervous, Louie snarled, "How'd that rodent get so close?"

The first two miles of the race had been treaded. Both Crash and Louie had exited the interisland bridge; now, it was time to make that risky U-turn to get right back on the bridge. Following behind the hippo, Crash let up on the gas slightly, steered the bike leftward, and then gassed it up full speed to complete the U-turn. This allowed Crash to steadily pass up his heavyset opponent.

While Crash began to gain an enormous lead on him, Louie decided it was time for some of those dirty tricks. Of all things, he pulled out a handheld potato gun from his jacket pocket and fired away. The spud hit Crash right in the back of his helmet. Dizzy from the sudden jolt, he swerved and careened left and right and nearly flipped off the side of the bridge. Meanwhile, Louie took back first place.

Now almost halfway across the bridge and just one mile to the finish line, Crash decided now was great time for a sudden stroke of genius. Nodding to himself, Crash thought about how two could play at this game…of immoral cheating.

Extracting his lovely Wumpa Fruit bazooka from his pocket, Crash aimed the hefty weapon at Louie's back, steadied his sights, and squeezed the trigger with extreme prejudice. Eyes going wide, Crash gaped at the immense nothingness that just occurred. He was out of ammo. Actually, he ate all of his ammo a long time ago.

Desperately searching for a new solution, Crash suddenly had another idea. Up ahead, he saw an iguana anthropoid picking up litter on the side of the road. Louie zoomed right past him, causing a strong zephyr to pick up a banana peel from the ground and deposit it directly into the iguana's face. Sighing, the iguana man said behind the banana peel, "I knew I should've taken that custodial job in China."

Meanwhile, as Crash passed up the iguana man, the desperate bandicoot snatched away the green trash bag the iguana man had been using to store the numerous amounts of roadside litter. Frantically fishing through the garbage bag for something small and solid, Crash happened upon a random, toy-sized rugby football and instantaneously crammed it in his bazooka, releasing the garbage bag behind him.

Crash readied his football-armed bazooka and aimed it right for Louie's exhaust pipe—his chopper's exhaust pipe, mind you. Pulling the trigger, Crash smiled beneath his helmet as he realized just how amazing his aim was.

Much to Louie's dismay, his motorbike's engine sputtered and failed in five seconds, just five meters away from the finish line. Crash zipped past him and won it all.

"_Yaaahoo!"_ the orange hero bellowed in total ecstasy, listening to the crowd cheer on his victory. He slipped off his helmet and triumphantly raised both hands in the air.

As Crash steered his bike toward his family, Aku Aku proudly congratulated, "You did it, Crash!"

"You the man, big bro!" Coco cheered enthusiastically.

"Good going, you beat that purple sucka!" Crunch yelled, high-fiving Crash.

Myles the coyote even came up and congratulated Crash on his win. Whispering lowly, he told the bandicoot discretely, "You raced like a champ, kid…even though both of you cheated. Yeah, I saw that bazooka thing. But then again, that means you're a true biker. So how about we celebrate, just you and me!" Somewhere in that short speech, Myles had transitioned from Crash to Coco. "What was your name, again? Cocoa puffs, or something wild and crazy like that?"

Sighing, Coco said, "Count me down, Crunch."

Crunch nodded and started, "Three…two…one…"

On "two," Coco reared back her foot. On "one," she landed a swift kick in Myles' man-berries.

Meanwhile, Louie finally managed to push his dead bike across the finish line. Scowling at the victorious bandicoot, the hippo barked angrily, "Think you won? You won't even have a tongue to tell about it when I'm done with you!"

Like a raging bull, Louie charged full speed at Crash, who nervously sat on his motorbike and closed his eyes in fearful anticipation. Luckily, Crunch was there to intercept Louie, catching him with a metallic right hook across the temple. It was an instant K.O.

Seeing as how Myles was still writhing on the ground and Louie was out cold, Carter realized they couldn't afford to lose any more gang members, so he commanded, "C'mon, Vince! Let's get the heck outta here!"

Vince, the kangaroo Aussie, shouted at the bandicoot family, "You blokes are lucky you're much tougher than us! Otherwise, we'd dust ya _real_ good!"

Rolling his eyes, Crunch patted a hand against Louie's monstrous motorcycle and said slickly, "Sure, whatever you say. We'll be taking this off your hands, now…"

Having won the competition and thoroughly exhausted this chapter's length, the Bandicoot family headed home with their newly acquired motorbike.

* * *

**-X-**

Louie's Gang

They're mean, crude, rude, and just plain ill-mannered. They also ride motorcycles and hustle for a living. Louie, the ring leader, is a fearsome hippopotamus of great girth, pushing a monstrous motorcycle to boot. Vince the kangaroo is their second in command, covered in tattoos and bad attitude. They also have a cute bandanna-wearing chipmunk in their midst. He's definitely got a serious Napoleon complex. And at the bottom rung of the ladder is Myles, a ladies' coyote from central Texas. With a voice like velvet, he flirts with anything he finds remotely attractively, even though he strikes out ninety-five percent of the time. These mismatched baddies of the same gang are all O.C.'s from _CadeXHybrid._

Brian Rae

**Age: **43  
**Gender:** Male  
**Species: **Iguana

Brian Rae is an iguana. He is constantly between jobs. Sometimes, he takes on the role of road side maintenance inspector. Other times, he is a Chinese village upkeep caretaker, racetrack maintenance supervisor, secret lab custodian, city maintenance janitor, and abandoned warehouse custodian. Reportedly, he likes his life as much as we do. Why _CadeXHybrid _gave him a full bio is beyond me. I guess you should expect to see him later in the story. Maybe.


	4. New Recruits

**Chapter 4: New Recruits**

"How ya holdin' up, Aku Aku?" Crunch hollered over his howling motor.

"I told you _not_ to distract me!" the witchdoctor hollered back. Aku Aku was riding back seat again with Crash and simultaneously tasked with using his levitation powers to carry Louie's motorbike back home with them.

Half an hour later, they arrived home. Crash and Crunch parked their respective bikes in the garage, followed by Aku Aku as he pushed the new bike into the garage with his telekinetic powers. Now that all three of the motor vehicles were safely stashed away, it was time for the Bandicoot family to hit the sack; they were beat. Crunch unlocked and opened their front door and led the way in.

In the past year, the Bandicoot's home had gone through a few renovations. The tree house was now two stories high, allowing for tons of more space to do…not much of anything at all. Sure the house was big, but unfortunately, it had no running water since no one in the family had any plumbing skills whatsoever. They could sure use someone with a red hat and mustache…and a stereotypical Italian accent. That just might get the job done on its own.

"You guys go on to bed," Crunch told everyone else upon entering the living room. "I think I'll go back take the new bike out for a joyride."

Aku Aku nodded and replied, "Don't forget your helmet, Crunch." After that little tidbit, Aku Aku descended on the nearest couch and entered a dormant state of tranquility, also known as sleep for wooden masks.

Shrugging off the fact that he didn't even own a helmet, Crunch turned around and headed for the door. After opening it, Crunch's entire body froze as his short and pointy ears shot up. Addressing Crash and Coco, he said cautiously, "Yo, guys. I'm pretty sure I see…something standing on top of our garage."

Moving by the front door with Crunch, Coco asked, "Do you think it's just a Titan that lost its way?" Crash soon joined them at the threshold and peered at the garage in the darkened distance. Someone was definitely standing on the roof of their garage. The figure shrouded in mystery was dressed in all black and seemed to be wearing a long coat judging by how his or her clothing fluttered in the wind.

Crunch spoke up, "Let's go find out who that is."

"Should we wake up Aku Aku?" Coco asked in a whisper.

Shaking his head, Crunch waved his hand flippantly and said, "No, we can handle this."

The bandicoot trio made their way to the garage to confront the obscure invader. When they got close enough, Crunch told the stranger, "Hey buddy, if you're lost, you can probably get a better view from atop that…hill." In that brief lull in Crunch's sentence, he'd taken in the mysterious man's appearance. Instead of an anthropoid species, the man actually looked human. The only thing _nonhuman _about him was his skin color. It was a light shade of blue. The man was bald-headed and wore black sunglasses in addition to the black cloak.

Ears perking up, Crash walked forward with a smile and waved good-naturedly.

From this friendly act, the strange blue man actually decided to greet them. His voice was low and serious as he said, "Good evening, Bandicoot family. I've studied your actions from time to time and observed your many displays of heroism. You're some of the best at doing what you do—I'm truly honored to meet you."

Craning his neck, Crunch asked absentmindedly, "Are you gonna throw us a party?"

Shaking his head, the cloaked man countered, "Not exactly. You see, right now, the safety of your entire realm is on the cusp of a crisis. My name is Orphco, and I am one of the Twilight Realm's godly precursors, along with my four brethren. Our realm has already been ravaged by this crisis, and now your realm is to be the next target. We are in need of courageous world-saving heroes such as you three to put an end to this never ending catastrophe!"

"…Um yeah, that's totally us," Coco hesitated at first. Then, raising an eyebrow, she placed her hands on her hips and asked suspiciously, "Wait a sec, this isn't some kind of global warming, 'save-the-trees-man' thing you're talking about, is it? 'Cuz I've already conducted an experiment that completely proves that theory is a bunch of—"

Shaking his head, the precursor man corrected, "No, we need your help to destroy five fiends that threaten universal concord. I am here to unite you with the other obliging heroes of the universe."

"Other heroes?" Crunch repeated. "You want us to team up with other people?"

Nodding, Orphco affirmed, "We find that your chances of destroying the five evil beings will increase if your own numbers are higher than theirs. If you choose to follow through with this undertaking, I shall take the three of you to meet up with your future teammates. If you don't, I won't bother you any longer and will be on my way back to my own realm."

Scratching his chin, Crunch suddenly commanded the younger bandicoots, "Guys, huddle up." As the trio gathered around each other, Crunch asked, "So this guy seems trustworthy, right?"

Coco shrugged and said, "He's definitely not from this planet. And you know we have bad luck with aliens!"

"No, he said he's from a different realm," Crunch revised.

"What's the difference?" Coco shot back.

"Nothing really. But I say we go for it! What's the worst that could happen?"

"We could get shot, stabbed, or slipped a roofie."

"Those sound pretty avoidable," Crunch said indifferently.

Rubbing the back of her neck, Coco stalled, "I don't know…"

"C'mon, we're like the A-Team!" Crunch further asserted.

"You know what—why don't we let the birthday boy decide?"

Crash, who had been looking back and forth between Crunch and Coco during their short conversation, perked up at the mention of "birthday boy" and gave a simple thumbs-up, nodding in his silent way of communicating.

"Sounds like a 'yes' to me," said Crunch, turning away from the huddle to face the awaiting blue man. Throwing out a thumbs-up, he announced, "We're in!"

Smiling lightly, Orphco said gratefully, "I had a feeling you'd join the fight for peace!"

"Why not?" said the burgundy bandicoot nonchalantly. "It's been getting pretty boring around here, anyway."

Coco quickly reminded everyone, "Hold it. Won't we be forgetting someone?"

Being the first to figure out who she was talking about, Crash ran back into the tree-home and retrieved Aku Aku's sleeping wooden form. Carrying the witchdoctor mask back outside of the house high over his head, Crash let everyone know his mission was a success with a toothy smile.

Orphco commended. "Excellent work, Crash! If everyone here would gather around me, I will take you to meet the other heroes of the universe."

Doing as they were told, the three bandicoots, plus an unconscious Aku Aku, stood in close proximity to the blue-skinned god of the Twilight Realm. The small grassy area on which they were standing started to glow a bright blue.

Crash, Coco, and Crunch both looked around in wonder at the bright lights as Orphco added, "I recommend you hold on to any unfastened items, as they are bound to get lost in the vacuum of space." The blue light now became blinding.

Looking worried, Coco asked, "Did you say—?"

As the light flashed throughout that section of the islands, they completely disappeared without a sound.

* * *

**-X-**

"—space?" finished Coco. Her voice echoed. The bandicoot family found themselves in one of the weirdest places they've visited yet. Misty clouds of different hues of orange and purple surrounded them, above, below, and all around. It didn't appear they were standing on anything, almost as if a transparent glass platform was situated underneath their feet. Tiny white balls of light were scattered all around the misty clouds like stars at night. Through the clouds up above them, they could see the blackness of space. The bandicoots looked around and realized Orphco was no longer by their side.

On the verge of going off, Coco turned around and started, "Alright, where the heck is that blue conman?" However after turning around and finishing that impulsive statement, Coco became astonished as she met the sight of many different people standing and staring at her. She asked in shock, "Who are all of you?"

Crash, who was still holding onto the napping Aku Aku, joined Coco in looking around at all of the gazing people, followed by a confused Crunch. Some of these characters were rather strange to them; they were of various shapes, sizes, and species, some of which the bandicoot family had never seen before. Next to them was a three-partied group that didn't seem to look any different from the inhabitants of Earth. In fact, the trio consisted of a raccoon in a tuxedo, a tortoise in a wheelchair, and a pink hippopotamus wearing a pilot's outfit. Crash took note of the lack of pants on the raccoon and hippo.

Further through the otherworldly room were stranger groups of "people." Next was a group of five, three humans, two animals. The two animals were, of course, standing upright and wearing what looked like royal clothing. One was a duck wearing a blue, long sleeved shirt. In his right hand, he wielded a long, fancy stick that looked like a wizard's staff of some sort. The other was a dog man wearing mostly green and yellow garments. With a knight's helmet on his head and a fancy shield in his right hand, it was obvious he was in royalty. Crash also took note of the pants-less duck.

As for the humans, all three of them looked like teenagers around fifteen or sixteen. The one girl had reddish hair and wore pink clothing. She stood at about five-foot four on large, light pink shoes. At the same height was a brown haired boy wearing mostly black and yellow clothing. There were all kinds of odd designs all over his pant legs and shirt sleeves, and on each hand were black fingerless gloves. The next boy had long, vaguely feminine silver hair that covered most of his eyes, and he wore a black, sleeveless shirt under a yellow, opened vest. Also, he wore baggy blue pants and bandages around his left hand. He stood a few inches higher than the other two teens. Crunch had difficulty figuring out whether or not these kids were from some part of Japan or another planet.

The next seemed to be a loner. He must have been an elf of average human height because of the visibly pointy ears. He wore a green tunic and thin, white leggings. Under his tunic was a set of chainmail armor and a tight-fitting white long sleeved shirt. The green cap on his head hid blonde hair that fell out the sides over his pointy ears, which sported blue hoop earrings that glimmered throughout the room. He stood with his arms crossed and eyes closed in a very serious manner. On his back was a large, U-shaped shield crossed by a sheathed sword and a canister containing arrows. All three weapons hung on his back by a single brown strap tied across his torso. Crash, Crunch, and Coco had to admit that he looked to be the most warrior-ish out of the entire crowd.

Next was a very unlikely duo; one was an anthropoid tiger-creature with a lion-like tail and big, striped, feline ears. He looked like an auto repair technician of some sort judging by his large, leather gloves and the wrench he carried in his right hand. This was no ordinary wrench, however; it was about three feet long and a foot wide, most likely used as a weapon. On his head was a pilot's helmet with the buckles hanging off the sides. The feline man was shirtless and barefoot; the only clothing he wore were the gloves, the helmet, a pair of blue jeans, and a brown gun strap around his shoulders and chest. His shorter companion, who stood by his side, was actually quite different from him. He was a two foot tall robot with a box-shaped body and a cantaloupe-sized head. On that metal head of his were two glowing green "eyes," a wide jaw fixed at two joints across from one another, and a red light glowing on an antenna over atop his dome. The cat-guy and the robot stood next to each other, looking a bit confused.

The last group to observe was another trio. Now, Coco had to do a double-take when she saw the shortest member. She thought she'd seen a miniature version of Crash standing there next to the taller fellow. Speaking of that taller fellow, he must have belonged to some other kind of elfin race because his ears were extremely pointy and about a foot longer than the other elf they noticed from before. He displayed an extremely defensive expression, most likely because he didn't know anyone else in the room. The girl next to him shared the same elf-like features. His female companion stood a little shorter than him and had a look of intrigue on her face.

Starting with the small orange creature, it can be said that he shares a lot of qualities with Crash, in terms of fur color, the presence of pants, and the lack of a shirt. But there were a few notable differences, like the fact that this two foot tall creature had a tail. His upper body seemed weasel-like while his lower half almost resembled that of a sea otter's. Trying to think hard about every creature in nature she'd studied in her life, Coco couldn't tell what kind of animal he was supposed to be. Pilot hats seemed to have been popular in that room because the tiny weasel-thing also wore one on his head. Poking through holes on the top of the leather hat, his orange ears stood freely upwards like antennas on a bug. He wore fingerless gloves, but went barefoot. Unlike the other two people next to him, he looked like he was scared out of his mind.

The girl had dark blue hair tied up in the back with a few strands loosened out on the sides. Her oil-stained maroon pants and white blouse with straps revealed that she was a mechanic of some kind. While she did look around at everyone with much curiosity, she stayed close to the young man that looked to be around her age.

Last, the blonde haired young man stood as the tallest of the trio. He was wearing sandy-colored desert clothes, which consisted of a torn cloth around his waist, a blue tunic with ripped sleeves, dirty white pants, brown combat boots, and a pair of goggles worn above his forehead; the blonde youth had many bronze armor plates strapped to parts of his body like his arms, shins, shoulders, and chest.

And so, each stranger stood in the spots that they had been teleported to. All eighteen so-called heroes stood at this union wondering who in the world these other people were supposed to be and when the mysterious blue beings would show up again.

* * *

**-X-**

_Characters from Sly Cooper, The Legend of Zelda, Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, and Kingdom Hearts appear in my story. Later on, more characters from Super Mario Bros., F-Zero, Sonic the Hedgehog, and more appear. As you can see, there aren't many characters from mature-rated games._

_My five villains are purely fan-made by me. They can all be viewed on my deviantart page through the link on my profile page._

_This sounds hectic, but I'll do my best to keep things focused on the bandicoot family's perspective._


	5. Hyrule and Paris

**Chapter 5: Hyrule and Paris**

It was quite obvious that the eighteen people grouped together in that mysterious room were the donned heroes Orphco was talking about. However, Crash and his family were not the only ones trying to live their normal lives before being whisked away by mysterious blue people. In fact, the first person to arrive in the cloud room was the silent hero in the green tunic. This was most likely due to the fact that he didn't live far from the Twilight Realm.

In a faraway world where creatures of all types imaginable roamed the landscape, the young man walked through a slightly destroyed courtyard in front of an immense castle still in the middle of construction. He stopped in his tracks with his eyes closed, thinking to himself about the amazing journey that had just transpired a few days ago. He thought of the countless lives he had saved after defeating the evil Lord Ganondorf. And most importantly, he continuously thought of getting back to his home in Ordon Village. He was exhausted.

Suddenly, all of that quiet reflecting was interrupted by a sudden crash. The young warrior's eyes shot open to see a pile of rocky rubble a meter away from him. He looked up in the sky to see the source of the disturbance. On a higher up portion of Hyrule Castle still in construction, a couple of construction workers looked down at him sheepishly and yelled, "Our bad!"

He shouted back up to them in a light English accent, "Hey, watch it!"

"Heads up!" The workers accidentally dropped another cement block. This one was actually dropping directly above the young warrior.

He vaulted out of the way, barely escaping the cement block's wrath. Shaking his fist disdainfully, the boy shouted up, "Don't make me come up there!"

A female's voice called from across the courtyard, "Link, are you okay?" It was a young girl dressed in a royal gown and princess' crown. The warrior called Link made his way over to the royally dressed girl and knelt down to a knee in front of her. After she signaled for him to rise, she told him, "You're needed in my castle. A mysterious blue man has appeared in my throne room saying he wants to speak with you. I think he could be someone from the Twilight Realm."

Link followed the princess through the castle's haft-constructed front doors, trekking all the way up to the throne room to find five armor clad knights pointing their weapons at a man in black sitting in the throne. The man had a light shade of blue skin, wild, orange hair, and a black cloak. He slouched lazily all over the arms of the Zelda's throne. With a glazed look in his eyes, he let out a yawn that reverberated throughout the throne room's walls in a light echo.

The knights, on the other hand, seemed extremely furious at the laidback man. One knight said to the princess, "Forgive us, Princess Zelda! We tried to stop him from defiling your throne but he wouldn't listen!"

The man "defiling the throne" suddenly perked up at the presence of Link. Ignoring the guards, he said in a very informal and young man's tone, "Link, my boy! Just the hero I wanted to see."

Princess Zelda asked, "You two have met before?" Promptly denying that presumption, Link shook his head with an alienated look on his face.

"He looks like one of the Twili," Link whispered in her ear, "but that's impossible. Midna destroyed the only bridge between our world and theirs." He spoke to the man in black. "Who are you and where do come from?"

"Whoa, time out—you SPEAK?" the man exclaimed, suddenly sitting upright in Zelda's throne.

Link crossed his arms with the same alienated look on his face. "Of course I speak!"

"Oh, sorry dude. You've always seemed so…mute."

"Excuse me, is there any specific reason for you to be sitting in my throne?" Zelda asked tetchily.

"What can I say," the orange-haired blue man said, shrugging. "My legs were getting tired and these pee-brained knights decided…" Just then, all five knights brought there weapons closer to the man's neck. "Hey, hey, hey, back off! You guys don't even know me!"

"Well then," Link said, "who are you?"

"My name's Glenatus, but you can just call me Glen, and I'm a Precursor of the Twilight Realm!"

Confused, Link tilted his head and asked, "You say you're from the Twilight Realm? How so? The mirror was destroyed."

"Ya see, we Precursors have special powers, like crossing between different dimensions, reading a person's mind, and even the uncanny ability of fast forwarding through live television." Link, the princess, and the knights all looked at each other and shrugged, not having a single clue of what Glen was trying to explain. Glen scratched at his head of unkempt orange hair, wondering what he should say next. "Look, the main purpose of me being here is to recruit strong guys that fight for good…what are they called again?"

"Uh," one of the knights piped up, "heroes?"

"Yeah, those guys! Me and my other Precursor buds need the help of courageous people like you, Link, to—blah, blah, blah!" Glen jumped down from the throne with an intense look on his face. "Five bad guys just pillaged the Twilight Realm, and now their aiming to kill everything they come in contact with! And that's a lot of people and things, so we need your help putting a legitimate stop to them!"

Princess Zelda interjected, "Oh, my! Are they planning to attack Hyrule?"

Shaking his head, Glen responded matter-of-factly, "Actually…I doubt they even know your kingdom exists. They seemed to just past right by without even noticing it was here."

Slightly relieved, Zelda tactfully informed the blue-skinned man, "Please, Mister Glen, Link has just finished saving Hyrule from those tyrants Ganondorf and Zant only a few days ago. He's probably exhausted and homesick."

"I understand that, but a hero's work is never done, obviously," Glen explained. "We really need to borrow your boy, or else those five maniacs will annihilate everything in existence, including your kingdom, eventually."

Raising an index finger, Zelda decreed, "Regardless of what decision Link makes, I say that it is in his best interest to return home before he goes on anymore adventures."

Glen rolled up his sleeve and looked down at a glowing blue watch. "Ah geez, I'm running out of time and ideas…" Suddenly getting a regrettable idea in his head, Glen mentally played around with the thought and decided to go ahead with it.

Just then, like lightning, Glen dashed from the throne stairs to directly in front of Link. Very startled by the rapid movement, Link made to draw his sword, but the Precursor grabbed his left wrist before he could even touch the hilt. The floor around the two strugglers started glowing brightly.

"Link, I swear, I'll explain everything when you get there!" Glen said trying to calm him as the light grew brighter.

"What? Where are you taking me?!"

"Nowhere special, except you'll meet some other heroes—three, two, one, TIME TO GO!"

The spot they were clashing lit up the entire room. After the bright lights finally subsided, Zelda's vision returned. The knights and princess were more than surprised to see Link and Glenatus gone. An overwhelmed Zelda gasped in despair.

* * *

**-X-**

Link opened his eyes to find himself utterly surrounded by clouds of purple, orange, and everything in between. He was all alone. Had he been left to die? Glenatus did say that he would explain things later. So Link decided he would wait. For anything, really. What other choice did he have?

After twenty minutes passed (in Link's head, an eternity), a flash ignited ten meters away from him and three people stood there. "People" was probably an inaccurate word to describe them.

* * *

**-X-**

Somewhere in the city of Paris, from the entrance of a well-equipped hotel building, three figures could be seen walking out under the archway. To be specific, one of them was rolling on a wheelchair-type-thing, a turtle to be exact. He was wearing his usual gear for heists, along with the hippo next to him. The third person was none other than Orphco from Wumpa Island walking with his black coat fluttering in the breeze.

"Remember to stick to the plan, Murray," said the turtle. "We have to make it look like an authentic kidnapping."

"Got it," said Murray, holding a roll of rope raveled over his shoulder. "Kidnap Sly while you cut the lights and meet up with Orphco to brief him."

"I'll be waiting outside," said the bald, blue man. "Ready when you are, Bentley." As bright florescence filled the dark streets, it quickly disappeared, as did the three conspirators.

They reappeared in front of a large circular building, with a glass dome at the top. It had fifteen-foot high twin doors on the front and above it were large lit-up letters that spelled, "Salle du Château."

As soon as they took in their surroundings, they got to work. Murray the hippo and the turtle named Bentley moved around to the back of the building to find the power box of the great hall and a steel ladder that lead all the way up to the top of the dome roof's center.

"Alright, Murray," said Bentley while cracking the power box open, "signal me when you are in position."

"No problem," he said, getting on the ladder and climbing up the side of the building while still holding the rope. "I just hope no one spots my large tukas moving above them. This really should be a job for Sly."

Meanwhile, inside the Salle du Château, many couples were slow-dancing with each other under a glimmering chandelier that hung from the center of the ceiling. The great ballroom was filled with fancy paintings and portraits, quite a few fine dining tables lined the outer walls, and a live band played slow music for the dancers. A raccoon in a purple tuxedo and a fox wearing a glittering, sequined blue dress held each other closely as they danced in the thick crowd.

Outside, Murray was already atop the dome. He flipped the switch on his headset and said to Bentley on the other line, "I've spotted him, Bentley. He's dancing with Carmelita."

Bentley's voice resounded in his headset, "Good timing. When I cut the lights, you're gonna use the rope to drop in and grab him. As soon as you do, just gun it for the front door and meet up with us out in front."

"Right. I'm ready. Cut the lights Bentley."

Inside the hall, the raccoon and fox continued their slow dance, oblivious to the heist going on outside. The blue haired fox said to the raccoon in a slick Italian accent, "You may not remember this, but you and I once took a vacation to India. We shared a dance…similar to this one."

"Really, now?" the ringtail replied with a flicker in his eyes, "That memory must have slipped my mind."

"You hit your head and got amnesia, remember? You probably forgot a lot of things…"

"Well, I'm glad I wasn't an international thief when I woke up, instead of your partner. I sure wouldn't want to be on your bad side."

She laughed. "How do you know I have a bad side?"

"I assume all cops naturally do."

"Well I'm not a cop tonight, am I?" she said with a low tone. She wrapped her fluffy, orange and yellow tail around his striped one.

Before the raccoon had time to respond to such a "friendly" gesture, every light in the ballroom went out. There was a lot of confusion amongst the dancers, some shrieking, and some groping around frantically in the darkness. A French man's voice rang throughout the dark room on a microphone saying, "Do not be alarmed, everyone. Z'ere is most likely a technical problem with le Château's power. Ze lights should be back on momentar…" The lights suddenly switched back on. "Never mind! Continue dancing…yes I know I am speaking perfect English. Get off my back—"

"Sly's missing!" yelled the fox. It was true; the tuxedo clad ring-tailed fox had vanished from where he was previously standing.

A French poodle saw a clue. The poodle looked over to the ballroom's entrance and exclaimed, "Look, ze door is wide open! Someone must 'ave taken 'im outside!"

The fox apparently had an idea of who that might be, judging to the extreme amount of anger gracing her features. She yelled, "Stop them! They're getting away!" She then pulled out a giant, red laser gun from a strap underneath her dress and darted out the door.

Outside, Murray held the captive raccoon under his arm as he ran with Bentley rolling by his side. The raccoon named Sly, who didn't seem to be struggling at all, asked, "What took you guys so long? I almost had an incentive to stay the night."

"Yeah, good to see you, too, buddy," said Bentley with a grin as he rolled hastily towards a black limo.

Sly quickly jumped out of the great hippo's arm and into the limousine, Bentley and Murray following after. With the door still open, Sly glanced at the Salle du Château and said very casually, "And Carmelita should be storming out those doors in three, two, one…" The great doors slammed open with the force of a hungry rhino. The extremely ticked fox's eyes darted up and down the streets for Sly and his captors. Sly said to whoever was driving, "Go, go, go! We have to lose her!"

"But we also have to make this look real!" added Bentley.

"Oh, right." Sly stuck his head out the window and yelled to Carmelita in a more or less believably frightened tone, "Help me, Miss Fox! Hurry or you'll lose us!"

Recognizing her target, she aimed her red gun at the stretched car, but didn't squeeze the trigger. She didn't want to hurt Sly. As the limousine sped away, she decided not give up, yet. Suddenly breaking off at a sprint down the street and leaping up to the roof of a building in a single bound, Carmelita caught up to the getaway car and began running parallel to the limo on the building's edge. As she did so, she shot high-concentrated balls of electric energy from her gun at the vehicle, peppering the street with large potholes every time she missed. The driver adeptly avoided the electric shots and swerved around the holes in the ground, turning a corner to get away.

Carmelita barely had time to notice the black tape over the vehicle's license plate. Giving up the chase, Carmelita let out a sigh and said to herself, "Looks like I'll be chasing after that raccoon for a little bit longer."

Meanwhile, inside the limousine, Sly sat with ease as he whispered to himself, "She'll definitely be happy to see me later_._" He turned his attention to Bentley and Murray sitting next to him. "So when you guys emailed me earlier this afternoon, you said something about impending destruction, a union of heroes, and a bald, blue guy that likes to go by the name of Orphco."

"He's the one driving," Murry informed, motioning towards the driver's seat.

Glancing at the driver, the raccoon saw a bald headed, blue-skinned human with sun glasses steadily manning the limousine. Orphco turned his head slightly and let everyone in the car know, "We're going to park in the nearest alley. Hopefully, the inspector has stopped tailing us so we can finally get down to business."

In the aforementioned alley, all four schemers exited the vehicle. Knowing the least about what business Orphco was talking about, Sly was the first to say, "Okay, you three, time to fill me in."

"Well," began Orphco, "for starters, I am called a Precursor, and I take part in watching over the balance of the universe. And right now, your world is in eminent danger of being attacked and wiped out by five super-powered foes. They have already ravaged many other realms, including my own, and they plan on spreading their tyranny to Earth. My fellow precursors and I are no match for these monsters, so we've been searching all over your world for heroes like the three of you to help defend against them. Some of my brethren are even searching for heroes in different worlds to join the fight! Luckily, there are a lot of heroes on this one planet to go around."

"I see…" Sly murmured, quietly ironing out the new information. "Sounds like another Fiendish Five to me. Are we the first people you've come to?"

"No. I have gone to others, only to be rejected."

"Hmph. They call themselves heroes?"

"In their defense, most of them do have more important affairs going on in their lives at the moment. I met an explorer named Nathan Drake who said he was trying to get back to having a normal life with his newly wed spouse. Others, like a hedgehog named Sonic, were having psychological issues. I guess the life of a hero can be a bit demanding for some people."

Sly thought out loud, "Yeah, except I've been getting a little bored with the quiet life. That's why I was so excited to meet you guys again. I really have been missing the rooftop scene."

Bentley continued, "Murray and I have already decided to join the battle. This planet isn't going down without us in the fray. So what do you say, pal?" Bentley held out his hand to Sly, palm down. Murray placed his large pink hand over top of the turtle's gloved one.

Sly laughed. "No way in the world…would I ever let you guys risk your lives without me!" He proceeded to place his hand over the hippo's.

Nodding in excitement, Murray replied, "I knew you couldn't resist going on one more adventure with us!"

"Good," said the pleased Orphco, eyes flickering with satisfaction behind his sunglasses. "I was starting to think no one from this world would oblige to doing this mission. Now then, I shall use teleportation to take you to see the other heroes, as well as my four precursor brethren." He walked over to the trio and placed his hand over everyone else's. The area around them began to light up.

Sly suddenly had a thought. "Hey, are we gonna need our equip—" They vanished, leaving the limousine, the alleyway, the dark streets, and the angry Carmelita Fox behind.

* * *

**-X-**

"—ment?" Sly looked around to see his two best friends, but no Orphco.

"What a strange place…" said Bentley, clearly fascinated by his surroundings.

"I wonder who that guy is…" Murray said, pointing at Link, who stood quietly, thirty or forty feet from them with an impatient look in his eyes.

"I wonder how long he's been standing there, all by himself," Sly thought out loud. "I sure hope he's the friendly type, because he looks a little ticked off by something."

* * *

**-X-**

Link

**Age: **17  
**Gender:** Male  
**Species:** Hylian

Link is a silent hero whose ancestors have saved Princess Zelda and her kingdom countless times. A Hylian boy from the distant land of Hyrule, he grew up in a small village called Ordon. In that village, he once worked as a farm hand and was well-known for his prowess in horse-riding, swordsmanship, archery—you name it. His trademark outfit is brown boots, a green tunic, and a green cap. He wields all kinds of weapons in his bottomless arsenal, from an almighty blade called the Master Sword to a huge ball-and-chain and even a grappling hook. This iteration of Link stars in _The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess__, 2006._

Zelda

**Age: **20  
**Gender: **Female  
**Species: **Hylian

The hailed princess of the land of Hyrule, Zelda symbolizes the wisdom of her kingdom. In fact she and her many ancestors have been blessed by the goddesses over and over again by being given the mark of the Triforce of Wisdom. Recently, Zelda actually helped Link battle the evil Ganondorf with her enchanted Light Arrows. She and Link seem to share a more or less sterile relationship, meaning they don't have any romantic interest in each other. This incarnation of the princess of Hyrule appeared in _The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess__, 2006._

Glenatus (Glen)

**Age:** 303  
**Gender: **Male  
**Species: **(Precursor) Twili

Obviously not the most organized of the Precursors, Glen proves to be the rudest. His other brethren often see him as the most unreliable in the group, especially with important instructions. Like his precursor comrades, he holds a light shade of indigo in his skin tone, orange, spiky hair on his head, and an opened black cloak. This Precursor of the Twilight Realm is an O.C. courtesy of _CadeXHybrid._

Sly Cooper

**Age: **23  
**Gender: **Male  
**Species: **Raccoon

A raccoon from a long line of highly skilled thieves, Sly Cooper is an international thief who enjoys stealing loot with honor and style. His main weapon of choice is the Cooper family cane that he uses to effectively thrash bad guys, pickpocket unsuspecting guards, swing, grapple, and thrash more bad guys. Orphaned by the Fiendish Five when he was just a child, he met his two lifelong friends and partners in crime Bentley and Murray in the orphanage they shared. Recently, Sly faked amnesia and purposefully let Inspector Carmelita Fox convince him that he was her police partner in the line of duty. The devious raccoon first starred as the main protagonist in _Sly Cooper and the Thevious Raccoonus, __2002._

Murray

**Age: **22  
**Gender: **Male  
**Species: **Hippopotamus

He's round. He's pink. And he calls himself "The Murray." He has every right to. Once a crestfallen orphan, he quickly befriended Sly and Bentley, helping pull off heist after heist as both their wheelman and muscle. Murray does all of the heavy lifting, heavy punching, and high spiriting. In his words, "When there's a Murray, there's a way!" "The Murray" starred alongside Sly and Bentley in_Sly Cooper and the Thevious Raccoonus, __2002._

Bentley

**Age: **23  
**Gender: **Male  
**Species:** Turtle

Like a walking super computer, this turtle has a well thought-out plan for any heist. Paralyzed from an event that involved a giant robot owl, Bentley has been confined to a wheelchair ever since, but he did not allow his disability to hinder his killer intellect. Tricking out his chair with jet-powered rockets that propel him to greater heights, a magnetic fishing rod for pickpocketing, a pair of high-tech goggles that shoot sleeping darts, mobile recon cameras fully equipped with grappling hooks, an arsenal of specialized time bombs, and so much more, Bentley has gone to great lengths to ensure that he's no liability to the Cooper gang. He is currently in a relationship with his tech-freak girlfriend, Penelope. Bentley appeared alongside Sly and Murray in _Sly Cooper and the Thevious Raccoonus, __2002._

Inspector Carmelita Montoya Fox

**Age: **24  
**Gender: **Female  
**Species: **Fox

Interpol officer Carmelita has spent more than a few stakeouts trying to catch the oh-so elusive Cooper gang. On the outside, she usually displays a tough and hardened demeanor and is quick to go to guns in order to uphold the law. However, it seems Sly is the only one capable of getting to her softer, more charming side. No doubt she's had a crush on him ever since they met atop the opera house in Paris. Whether she's on or off duty, she takes her prized shock pistol with her everywhere. Miss Fox appeared as the eager cop in _Sly Cooper and the Thevious Raccoonus, __2002._

Orphco

**Age:** 586  
**Gender:** Male  
**Species:** (Precursor) Twili

Orphco is the Precursor of the Twilight Realm who traverses all around Earth in search of select heroes to recruit against the eminent villainous invasion. He has been rejected by plumbers, hedgehogs, echidnas, raiders of tombs, Tasmanian tigers, fighters of the street, gods of war, Sams and Maxes, splinter cell operatives, and frogs trying to cross the street. He was only able to collect two parties, the Bandicoot family and the Cooper Gang. Out of the five Precursors, he seems to be the most organized. He has a shaved head, black cloak, and black sunglasses. Orphco is an original character created by _CadeXHybrid._

_The first half is based off of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It takes place a few days after its ending, I guess when the castle is being rebuilt. (It got blown up, right?)  
The second half takes place on earth a few hours before Orphco appeared on Wumpa Island. It's about three months after the events of Sly 3._

_Up next, **Metropolis and Spargus City.**_


	6. Metropolis and Spargus City

**Chapter 6: Metropolis and Spargus City**

Meanwhile, in a different galaxy, on the hustle-and-bustle planet of Metropolis, hovering cars zoomed through the air in specific lanes and routes at top speed. Under the blue skies, the ships weaved through immense, scattered buildings that stretched to the foggy ground. On a thin catwalk between two of the tall buildings, the feline man and the short robot were currently strolling across it, side by side. The robot's glowing green eyes looked from the metal hoverboard safely tucked under the feline man's arm to a ramp connecting to the side of the adjacent building behind them. The bipedal feline spoke in a young man's voice, "This is gonna be sweet, Clank! Ninety miles an hour, going straight up the side of a building on a hoverboard!"

The robot, Clank, said with little to no enthusiasm, "But Ratchet, if it didn't work the last eight times, I don't think it'll—"

"Relax," Ratchet cut off, "I tweaked the engine a little, so it should have a little more kick to keep us from falling back down."

Reaching the end of the catwalk opposite the ramp, Ratchet and Clank turned around and got into position, the latter of whom more reluctant in his movements. Ratchet flipped the switch on the metal board and it began emitting blue waves from its underside. Ratchet purposefully dropped it, allowing the board to hover two feet above the ground with the blue waves keeping it afloat. Excitedly, Ratchet gestured toward the hoverboard and commanded, "Let's do this, Clank!"

Clank sighed, jumping on the furry man's striped back in his usual backpack position. He made one last attempt, "This won't work if our speed is too high. According to the law of conservation of angular velocity—"

"Whoops, time to go!" Ratchet clearly gunned it early on purpose to quell his little buddy's nagging. As they sped down the narrow catwalk, keeping straight on the upcoming ramp's path, Ratchet's face began pulling backwards from the board's incredible speed. Getting close enough to the ramp, the Lombax finally understood what Clank was talking about: it didn't matter how fast they went, the ramp was entirely too steep.

As soon as the speeding hoverboard touched the ramp, their weight was thrown behind them, and the board shot up into the air without any passengers, swerving and nearly smacking into a flying vehicle. Both Ratchet and Clank had surprisingly softer landings than they predicted. A foreign, yet soft object seemed to cushion their fall.

Under the furry Lombax and tiny robot was a blue man wearing black slacks and a black vest. He seemed elderly, judging by his graying, thinning hair and gray mustache. Next to him was a black Navy hat of sorts that probably covered up the bald spot on his head.

After lifting themselves off of the barley conscious man, Ratchet and Clank noticed the old man's physique was actually very well-built. Curious, Ratchet turned to Clank and asked, "Do ya think he served in the military?"

As soon as Ratchet said those words, the old man sprang up from the ground, screaming and hollering things like, "Egad! Captain, I'm stuck behind enemy lines! Tell the rest of the platoon to save themselves!" The strange, deranged man leapt behind a lamppost on the catwalk as if it were a hiding spot. He poked his head around the (very thin) lamppost with a fearful look in his eyes and said, "Day twenty-five, thirteen-hundred hours. I have finally escaped from the enemy's POW encampment."

Needless to say, Ratchet and Clank were quite frightened. Ratchet slowly motioned with his hands to calm down the old man as he said, "Look, dude, you must be a long way from home…"

Clank commented, "I did not see this man before we took off. Did he just appear here out of thin air?" Noticing the military hat lying on the ground, Clank grabbed it and addressed the old blue man, "Sir, you dropped your hat."

When he wouldn't take it back, Ratchet tried some other methods of encouragement, "C'mon, boy! Take the hat! It's yours, right?"

This seemed to do the trick. The old man snatched up the hat, but instead of placing it over his bald spot, he held it like a handgun and began making the sound effects gunshots. _"Boom, boom, boom!_ Take that, General Reiden Long!"

Annoyed from being shot at with make-believe bullets, Ratchet snatched the hat back and placed it on the blue man's head briskly, firmly stating, "And now we're gonna bring you back to the Retirement Castle like good wholesome citizens."

Suddenly, the blue man spoke up with less…insanity. In fact, his voice was rather reminiscent of a big-shot drill sergeant. He shouted, "Hold it right there, Lombax! No one's takin' me anywhere!"

The Lombax and robot both fixed the blue man with perplexed gazes. Suddenly realizing the old man had found his sanity, Clank asked hesitantly, "Uh…who are you, sir?"

Utilizing a strange power, the elderly man began floating mere inches above the catwalk's surface with his arms tightly wound behind his back. In that same intense drill-sergeant's tone of voice, he promptly introduced himself, "You two maggots are gonna call me by my birth name, Eurathaccus, or just General, and I want YOU," he points his index finger at them with a very demanding, Uncle Sam-esque expression, "to join my army against a group of intergalactic terrorists aiming to decimate the lives of millions!"

"Whoa…what did you say your name was again?" Ratchet asked, trying to hold back a smile.

"Ratchet, please pay attention! I believe he is trying to tell us something important." Clank tried to change the subject, "Uh, General, sir, why did you travel here from wherever to tell us about this threat?"

The General countered Clank's question with one of his own. "You two go by the names of Clank and Ratchet, correct?" he asked with his arms behind his back.

"That is we," Clank confirmed.

"And you two have saved countless planets in the Solana galaxy, _correct?"_ The general's voice seemed to progressively grow louder.

"Yeah, we have," Ratchet answered with a smirk. "And then some."

Pointing a finger directly between Ratchet and Clank, the general exclaimed, "Then we want YOU! To fight for peace and justice alongside other brave soldiers like yourselves."

Interested, Clank looked up at Ratchet, who didn't appear to like the deal so far. A crazy person just shows up out of nowhere and expects them to join some probably make-believe army against Qwark knows what? Not likely. Wagging a gloved finger, Ratchet said skeptically, "Hey, now! You can't just draft us whenever you want. We have to know the conditions first."

"Conditions for what, Private?" the general inquired.

Crossing his arms, Ratchet stated with a raised eyebrow, "Conditions like knowing how tough these bad guys are and where we'll be stationed…"

"And knowing what planet to find them on," Clank finished.

Ratchet added, "And we don't need much help. We've taken on millions of monsters in the past."

General Eurathaccus replied loud and proud, "Then it sounds like you should be a real team player; because so have they."

"If you say so, General Cuckoo," Ratchet muttered, turning to Clank. He whispered to the tiny bot, "What do you say? Another adventure of shootin' and more shootin'?"

Shrugging, Clank admitted, "It couldn't be any worse than recurrently crashing into the side of a building."

Ratchet turned back to Eurathaccus. "Okay then, General. We'll do it! So where's your vessel?"

"I do not require a vessel!" he yelled unnecessarily. "Stand still!"

The flat ground under Ratchet and Clank began to illuminate brightly in the daylight until the light enveloped their vision. Ratchet only had time to exclaim "What in the—?" before they vanished right from the spot.

* * *

**-X-**

On another world, perhaps in a different galaxy from that of Ratchet and Clank, a large population of humanoids existed in sparsely populated communities. These elfin-like beings were the planet's most intelligent life forms, most of them looking just like regular sized humans, except for one common feature. Their ears were long, pointy, and constantly jutting outwards. Most of these humanoids lived in urban communities to keep themselves protected from feral creatures like the Hora Quan, or Metal Heads.

Haven City was one of the larger urban communities. It was surrounded by tall walls to keep out the dangerous creatures known as the Metal Heads. Outside of that city is the unforgiving desert—the ruthless Wasteland. On their own, few can survive very long in the Wasteland. However there is a secret city of refuge known as Spargus City. It's a smaller community than Haven, ruled by a king and protected by one defending wall and the endless sea. Inhabitants of this city are often battle hardened criminals turned wilderness survivors who can fend for themselves. This is the city that a certain young blonde man and his small orange friend were brought to after being banished and rescued in the Wasteland.

After the end of a long adventure, venturing between Spargus, Haven, and the Wasteland, the young man stands in the deceased king's palace, staring out the window that overlooked the entire city of Spargus. His transparent reflection revealed his dejected expression. The sunset left an orange hue in the wide throne room. From the axel and rope elevator behind him, a red haired woman ascended to his level. She had many tattoos and wore mainly dark blue and red clothing. She walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder, sympathetically saying, "The air train is leaving in ten minutes."

"I'll go tomorrow," he responded emotionlessly, keeping his eyes plastered to his transparent reflection in the window.

"I'll leave you alone, then, Jak," said the woman. She already knew about the heart wrenching tragedy Jak had just been put through. She knew firsthand how hard it was to lose a father.

Jak shook his head suddenly, covering up his vulnerability. "No—on second thought, I'll go with you guys now."

"Jak, it's okay to grieve," she told him. "Even I needed time alone when my own father died."

"I'll be fine," he said. He turned around and actually managed to give her a small grin.

They walked to the elevator together and lowered themselves to the ground. At the entrance, they met up with the orange little animal and the blue haired girl.

A little embarrassed to see that aqua-haired girl waiting for him while he stood next to the red-haired one, Jak scratched his face and tried to sound casual as he asked, "So, uh, you guys ready?"

"Ready when you are, buddy," the orange weasel said perkily. He seemed to be enjoying the blue pants he wore, as if he'd just gotten them.

"Yeah," the bluenette added, giving the tattooed red-haired girl a noticeably hostile look. Then, she said dismissively, "So, we'll see you on the lift, Ashelin. Bye-bye." There was a hint of distaste in her words when she said her name.

Ashelin could tell the girl really, really wanted her to leave Jak's side. Rolling her eyes, she walked away into the sandy streets of Spargus City, not quite able to comprehend the young girl's immaturity at the moment.

"Sheesh, Keira, I'd'a thought you two could see eye-to-eye by now," said the animal thing, causing Jak to look down in guilt. "C'mon, let's get back to Haven City! I wanna stare at my new girlfriend's ottsel body and while I fill my brand new pockets with hard candy."

Taking out a small communicator from her pocket, the blue-haired girl named Keira said, "Let me tell Torn to hold down the transport for us…" Holding down a button on the side, she talked into the link, "Torn, you there?"

A man's scratchy voice came through the link: "Yeah. Are you guys boarding, or not?"

She said back to him, "Yes, we'll be there in five minutes."

Daxter jumped up on Keira's shoulder and shouted into the communicator, "Hey, remind Sig not to eat that last piece of Leaper Tail I left on the air train!"

"Too late, baby!" said a black man's voice in the background. "Mm, mm, tasty!"

"I'll remember this, Sig!" Daxter yelled back at him.

Keira closed the link, and Daxter jumped back down with a burned look. They began their short trek toward the city's garage, weaving through the many gun-toting citizens. The entire time they were steadily walking through the city, Jak could feel a lethal tension brewing between Keira and him. Somehow, he could sense that Keira already knew about that infamous kiss he shared with Ashelin.

Almost to Jak's relief, everyone in the imminent vicinity was strangely blinded by an intense light. Jak, Daxter, Keira, and the nearby citizens roaming the area all covered their eyes, waiting for the lightshow to end. Once their vision returned, they noticed a person floating two feet off of the sandy landscape. It was a blue-skinned, teenaged girl.

This girl didn't seem as dignified as Orphco; she wore a simple black tank-top, a pair of black shorts that stopped high above her knee, and a green baseball cap turned backwards. Under that cap was blonde hair that fell out the sides, some coming out the front to cover her left eye. Even though she was floating two feet above the ground, her posture was typically terrible; she leaned on one side like the usual lazy teenager. She had a glazed look in her 'eye' as she blew a large, pink bubble from the gum in her mouth. She looked around at all of the townsfolk and said in a very surly tone, "So…do any of you know where I can find two guys named Jack and Dexter? Anybody?"

"The Dynamic Duo to which you're referring to," Daxter began, sounding high and mighty between Jak and Keira, "is standing right here. And it's DAXTER and Jak. Don't forget it."

Sighing uncaringly, she rolled her eyes and said, "Whatever. You guys have to come with me for a sec…"

"Listen—I don't know who you are, but I'm going to have to ask you to get lost," Jak said very crabbily. While Keira gave a small shrug, Jak continued heading towards Spargus' garage.

The floating girl crossed her arms and scoffed. "Whoa, no need to be rude, dude!

Daxter spoke up to her, "Sorry about my sidekick. The little tike's been through a lot in the past month or so… Now definitely ain't a good time to be throwin' us on another adventure. By the way, what's up with your ears, dollface? They're all short…and round. Did you have an accident, or something?"

The girl shook her head and replied, "No…I have normal people's ears. Dunno why all your ears are so freakishly long and pointy."

Waving his hand flippantly, Daxter caught up to Jak and Keira and called back to the strange blue visitor, "Yeah, well ear-length aside, we're not interested, blue-bomber!"

The girl sighed and said, "Well this was a total bust." Right as she was about to teleport, the appearance of three more people from a bright burst of light interrupted her abruptly. Recognizing one of the three ambassadors, the girl shrieked, "Daddy? What are you _doing_ here?"

That flash of light seemed to reclaim the departing trio's attention, judging by the way they stopped dead in their tracks to turn around and observe the source of the disturbance. One of them was an elderly blue man with a strong upper body. The other two looked very familiar to Jak and Daxter…

"Whoops…it seems I have miscalculated our destination!" the blue old man yelled in a drill sergeant's tone of voice. "No-sir-ee, this definitely ain't the briefing point."

"I still don't think this guy is right in the head," said the feline man of the group, otherwise known as Ratchet.

Clank looked around at the perplexed group of citizens surrounding them and noted, "These beings all possess abnormally lengthy ears. Why is that?"

Ratchet suggested, "Who knows, maybe we're on some planet we haven't heard of before…"

Evidently unhappy with her father's presence, the blue-skinned girl yelled, "Dad, why the heck are you here?"

"I'm sorry, Gladdus, my mistake," the General apologized sincerely, defensively holding up his hands.

She scoffed, crossing her arms and snapping, "You probably came here just to check up on me, right?"

"Maybe I did!" hollered the General, a precarious vein pulsating in his neck. "Maybe I wouldn't have to check up on you if you could be trusted to carry out simple tasks!"

"I _hate you_ daddy!"

"I know you don't really mean that!"

"I wish you'd stay outta my life!"

An extremely awkward silence fell over Ratchet, Clank, Jak, Daxter, Keira, and the citizens of Spargus City. Daxter began whistling and looking the other way while Keira muttered to herself, "Well, that got weird real quick."

Out of nowhere, Daxter suddenly recognized Ratchet and Clank. "Wait, I've seen those two before! There was a huge billboard in Haven City with their mugs on it, and then there's that gun course where you guys are the targets we ain't supposed to shoot at! Remember them, Jak?"

"Yeah, actually I do," Jak said, raising an eyebrow and studying the Lombax and robot.

Ratchet also seemed able to recognize the other two. "Didn't we have a portrait of those guys in your old apartment, Clank? And I think I remember seeing another one in Allgon City…"

"Is this really the first time you guys have ever met?" Keira asked curiously.

"This would be our very first meeting," Clank answered.

Jak asked, "How'd you guys get here?"

"Let's see," Ratchet began, "one minute we were bored and the next this war-vet guy showed up and told us about five great evils trying to destroy all life—you know, the usual bad-guy junk. So we've decided to team up with other heroes to take 'em down."

Clank added, "And it appears that there are other blue beings out to recruit heroes just like us. Did that young girl come here to recruit you, as well?"

Sheepishly, Daxter responded, "Uh yeah, I think that's what she wanted. But _Jak_…he just wouldn't even give her the time of day. You should'a seen how fast he rejected her!"

Rolling his eyes, Jak crossed his arms and said, "Doesn't matter, I still have no intention of doing any hero-work for a while."

Daxter eased in, "Now hold your horses, Jak! I think you should reconsider this now that Hatchet and Clunk said they're doing it."

"Actually, it's Ratchet and Clank…" Ratchet quickly inserted.

Ignoring the Lombax, Daxter pestered his best friend, "C'mon, Jak, they're like our rivals!"

Jak sighed. "I'd hate to miss out on another adventure while these guys have all the fun…"

Keira nudged him on the elbow, telling him intimately, "You know I'm going with you no matter what decision you make, right?"

This caused a tremor of apprehension in Jak. Somewhere in her green-eyed gaze, Jak could see that Keira definitely knew about his kiss with Ashelin. Or maybe he was just being paranoid. Snapping from his trance, Jak simply said "Fine. We'll go."

Ratchet and Daxter both cried out in excitement. With extra enthusiasm, Ratchet cheered, "Alright! The two legendary dynamic duos working side-by-side!"

Sounding a little ticked off, Daxter exclaimed, "Watch it, kid! 'Dynamic Duo' is our tag. Don't make me bust out the legal papers!"

Meanwhile the father and daughter were still feuding.

"And look at the way your dressed! Do the words 'respect' and 'conservative' not appear anywhere in your wardrobe?"

"I'm sorry I'm not wearing black cloaks and sunglasses twenty-four-seven!"

"All I'm asking is that you present yourself like a mature young lady!"

"I wish you were dead instead of Mom!"

"Sometimes I wish that myself!"

"I hate to interrupt this beautiful family moment," Daxter started, standing between Eurathaccus and Gladdus, "but we've all unanimously decided to join your little war."

General Eurathaccus tore his attention away from his pouting daughter. Clearing his throat, he got back to business, "Ahem, yes, this is good news. The more soldiers we recruit, the greater the chance we have of eliminating the threat to justice. Now, will everyone who's shipping off please stand close to me." Jak, Keira, Ratchet, Daxter, and Clank all grouped around the general. "Hopefully I'll get it right this time…"

"Wait," said Jak, "We should tell Torn we'll be a…" In a flash that brightly lit the sandy streets, they evaporated into nothingness.

Gladdus was left there, floating above the ground. "Bump this, I'm going to the mall." She vanished as well.

* * *

**-X-**

Right back in the cloud room, it had been only minutes since the Cooper gang showed up. It almost startled Link to see so many appear at once. Still, he said nothing to anyone.

"…little late," Jak finished.

The group of five had spawned somewhere in between the Cooper gang and Link. The immediate change in scenery seemed to be a bit much for Daxter. He exclaimed with wide eyes, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Where the heck are we?" He looked down at the bottomless abyss of a floor… "Whoa-holy sh—!"

"It's like we're inside a cloud wonderland!" said a very intrigued Keira.

"I think I'm gonna be sick…too many colors," said a nauseas Ratchet.

"Never in my few years of artificial life have I seen a place like this before," said an amazed Clank. "And I've seen deep space, nebulas, black holes, supernovas, and asteroid belts."

"Just remember to keep your guard up, everyone," Jak warned defensively. "This place doesn't look all that safe."

Daxter was now clutching onto Jak's leg. Shaking from fear, he said, "Aye-aye, captain."

* * *

**-X-**

_This takes place sometime after **Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time **and directly after **Jak 3.**_

_There are some new bios ahead. Feel free to skip ahead if you're already familiar with most of these characters. Also, here's a *spoiler alert* if you somehow haven't finished the third Jak and Daxter game since it came out in 2004._

Ratchet

**Age: **17  
**Gender: **Male  
**Species: **Lombax

This Lombax is always out for excitement and attention, but he always maintains his hero-like mentality. He grew up on planet Veldin, and spent most of his time fixing things and trying to make an aircraft so he could explore the galaxy. After meeting Clank, he was able to realize that wish. Together, Ratchet and Clank saved countless planets and "ripped the Solana galaxy a new one" at least three times. Ratchet usually spends most of his time on many different planets at a time, hardly ever returning to Veldin. Sometimes he goes to the scenic Pokitaru to "chillax" or to the busy Metropolis to do crazy stunts. Ratchet first appeared as the main protagonist in _Ratchet & Clank__, 2002_.

Clank

**Age: **5  
**Gender: **…Most Likely Male  
**Species: **Robot

Clank is a diminutive robot who was "born" on planet Quartu in a robot processing plant created by antagonist Drek. He was deemed a reject and projected from the facility. After crash-landing on planet Veldin, he helped Ratchet fix his aircraft. Together, they explored the galaxy and soon took down the various evil forces threatening it. This little robot is mostly the brains of the duo, often trying to make the most logical decisions as possible. Usually, Clank travels with Ratchet, latched onto his back like a small metal backpack. He was modified a long time ago by Big Al, giving him propellers in his hands and head for the purpose of hovering. Clank starred as the co-protagonist in _Ratchet & Clank__, 2002._

Keira

**Age: **17  
**Gender: **Female  
**Species: **Human

She may look gentle without her wrench, welding gear, oil stains, and dirt smudges, but she knows her way around a battlefield and most importantly, an automotive vehicle. Keira grew up with Jak and Daxter in Sandover Village, and has since loved to toy with machines and motor vehicles. In fact, she completed her first Zoomer for Jak when she was just fourteen. Her father Samos is the sage of Green Eco, and she, too, will become a sage of Light Eco one day. Keira is always supporting Jak and Daxter one hundred and fifty percent throughout their adventures, whether it means illegally tuning up their Zoomers or being Jak's…emotional support. Keira first starred as Jak's mechanic and love-interest in _Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy,__ 2001._

Daxter

**Age: **17  
**Gender: **Male  
**Species: **Ottsel

He's small. He's orange. He fits on your shoulder. Pretty much the opposite of Murray. He wasn't always a talking rodent. Daxter used to look just like Jak and Keira and the other inhabitants of their world, until three adventures ago Jak accidentally bumped him into a pool of dark eco, a twisted substance that does unimaginable things to its victims. For years, Daxter thought his ottsel form was a curse, but until recently, he now calls it a blessing, seeing as how he discovered that ottsels are the shape of their world's godly precursors. In fact, it was the precursors themselves who granted him his stylish, tail-fitted pair of jeans as their thanks for saving the world. Daxter appeared alongside his silent buddy in _Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy,__ 2001._

Jak

**Age: **18  
**Gender: **Male  
**Species: **Human

Jak grew up in Sandover Village, where he completed his very first world-saving adventure. Afterward, Jak discovered a Rift Ring that could act as a time machine, and he, Daxter, Keira, and Samos the Sage unintentionally used it to escape a nightmarish monster emerging from the Rift Ring. Appearing in a metropolitan area five hundred years into the future, Jak was quickly apprehended and imprisoned for two years. Over the course of his captivity, Jak was endlessly tortured with experiments dedicated to making him a feral super human, being painfully and repeatedly injected with that rowdy Dark Eco substance. After Daxter finally busted him out of prison, the little ottsel clearly saw how much the Dark Eco had changed Jak judging by how he almost killed Daxter in their reunion. Jak has been angry and vengeful ever since, until he recently surrendered his heart to the dark's converse, Light Eco. Jak used these Light powers to balance out the self-destructive Dark Eco in him, finally finding spiritual peace. Jak first starred as the main, silent protagonist in _Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy,__ 2001._

Eurathaccus

**Age: **979  
**Gender: **Male  
**Species:** (Precursor) Twili

The father of Gladdus, he was once married, but his spouse passed on long ago. He takes on the persona of a U.S. Military war general, speaking unnecessarily loudly with a country accent. He wears the typical black clothing of his brethren, showing off his arm muscles from his black vest. He also sports some sort of Navy hat, with five stars studded across the top. It seems without his hat perched on his head, his delicate psyche is transported back in time to some war he preciously fought in. This general is an original character by _CadeXHybrid._

Gladdus

**Age: **215  
**Gender: **Female  
**Species:** (Precursor) Twili

Gladdus is the seemingly teenaged daughter of General Eurathaccus and often publicly displays disobedience and disrespect to adult figures, like her own father. She hovers two feet above the ground, leaning in a lazy, uncaring posture. She is the first Precursor of Twilight to show up in Spargus City, but was rejected by Jak, Keira, and Daxter because they just weren't in the mood for more day-saving. Gladdus is an original character created by _CadeXHybrid_.


	7. Destiny Islands

Chapter 7: Destiny Islands

A group of islands, separated from the outside world(s), supported a very small community of a tertiary economy. These islands were completed surround by the blue waters, not really inviting anyone in or out. The main isle held all of the economic activity, like stores, outlet malls, big businesses, and schools. Some of the inhabitants owned automobiles, while most others either walked or took a trolley around town. Speaking of those schools I mentioned earlier, there was one particular high school idly labeled Destiny High that was home to a certain hero those Precursors were no doubt after. Why would I be wasting my time telling you about this place if they weren't after this hero?

In a desk next to the window of a classroom on the third floor, second hallway, a boy with light brown, spiky hair in a white and blue school uniform leaned his head on his right hand, staring out the window on his left. _My last and favorite class of the day, algebra, _he thought sarcastically. _Let's see, what number leaf was I on from that tree out there? Oh yeah, six hundred seventy nine, six hundred eighty, six hundred eighty one…_

The boy looked from the interesting tree outside to the overhead math lesson shining on the white board. The teacher droned monotonously, "And then, if you subtract the inverse from the converse, you get…would anyone like to answer? Anyone? Bueller…Bueller…Bueller, can you wake up Riku please?"

_As usual, half the class is asleep. Seriously, when am I going to use junk? Like I'm really going to be wondering what the converse of an inverse is when I'm slaying Heartless… _

"Bueller…Bueller…"

The boy with the gravity-defiant hair looked around the classroom in case something else interesting could catch his attention. Accidentally, he stared at a certain red haired girl for such a prolonged amount time, that she actually noticed him. As soon as she turned an inch in his direction, the boy quickly came back to reality and reset his attention that amazing tree.

_Idiot, idiot, idiot, stupid, stupid, stupid! Okay, Sora, you have to play it off…you were looking at the clock above her. That's genius!_

Three hundred "Buellers" later, the bell rang.

The students of the class all let out yawns and shrieks of, "Thank godliness, it's over," "About freakin' time!" (Tidus) and, "Well rested before blitzball practice, ya?" (Wakka).

"Hey, Sora!" called a silver haired boy while the class departed. He was the one who was napping.

The brown haired boy named Sora woke up from his desk, saying, "More strawberries, Ka…? Ka—complicate your digestive tract!"

"Um…okay," said a freaked out Riku. He smirked. "I thought she liked kiwi."

"Whatever, let's just go home!"

"What's taking you guys so long?" called the red haired girl, who was waiting by the door.

After the two boys joined the girl, they headed downstairs to deposit their thick math books in their lockers. There, they met up Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka.

Selphie, the brown haired girl, greeted them. "Hello Sora, hey Kairi, hiya Riku."

"Hey you guys," said Kairi, smiling. "Would any of you want to stop by my house later on? I just bought this new game called Rock Band 2. I have all the instruments and everything."

"I call drums!" declared Tidus.

"Bass—!"

"BASS!"

"Sorry, Wakka," said Riku, proudly, "but I said it first."

"Darn it," complained Wakka. "C'mon, let me have bass!"

Selphie said, "Really guys? Fighting over bass? Well I'll do guitar and vocals."

"Wow," began Kairi, "I really didn't think you all knew about this game. Sora, what do you want to play?"

Sora thought hard. "Uh, can I do bass?"

"What is it with you guys and bass?" asked Selphie.

"Laziness," answered Kairi with a grin. "Don't worry, Sora." She placed her finger on his chest. "I'll pick _for _you."

Sora was entranced. "Um…okay."

Tidus coughed, _"Whipped!"_

* * *

"Kairi, there's no way I'm doing vocals!" yelled Sora, holding the microphone.

"C'mon, Sora! Didn't think I'd remember your stories from Atlanta?" pointed out Kairi, holding the guitar.

"But that was different! I was under water."

"Well…you sang for that OTHER red haired girl! Why not for me?"

Tidus, on drums, said, "She's got you there. C'mon, we're all dying to hear your angelic voice!"

Sora sighed in defeat. He gazed at Kairi's giant fifty two-inch, flat screen television. He, Riku, Kairi, Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka were now in their usual clothing, instead of the school uniforms. Sora decided to wear his normal black and yellow Drive clothes; Riku wore his yellow vest and blue jeans; Kairi had on her pink jacket-dress mix; Tidus had on his blitzball training clothes (FF10); Selphie wore her yellow tank-top and blue shorts, and Wakka had on a white T and orange sweat pants.

They were all inside Kairi's magnificent game room. She is the mayor's daughter, after all. The ceiling was far up above, causing a loud echo. A single light bulb lit the room, but most of it was lit up by the large TV's bright screen. The room was circular, had multicolored polka-dot carpeting, many beanie bag chairs, and a stereo system next to the TV. Selphie and Wakka sat in the beanie bags chairs, awaiting their turns.

"Okay," Sora said, defeated, "what are we gonna play?"

"You have to pick your rocker first, Sora!" reminded Riku, holding the second guitar.

"Oh yeah," said Sora, looking at the screen. He noticed how Kairi's avatar looked exactly like her. Her rocker was wearing some kind of blouse-fishnet-dress mix. Riku's was a muscular character with crazy long hair. Tidus's was a skinny shirtless character with a huge Mohawk.

"Don't worry, Sora, I already made yours," assured Kairi.

"You call me lazy, yet you continue to pick up my slack!" commented Sora. He pressed a button on the controller and scrolled through the list of default rockers until he found his name. When his rocker popped up, he had to admit Kairi did a nice job of making him look like a wanna-be skater. He had a black and blue striped hoodie (hood over his head), studded belt, and tight black pants. His hair was brown, at least. "Gee, thanks Kairi," he said with much sarcasm.

"No prob, Bob!" She hit a button on her controller to continue. They were now at the song selection screen.

"Can we please not pick anything like _Chop Suey_?" asked Sora. "I can't keep up on that song for anything!"

Wakka spoke up from the beanie, "Oh, oh, pick _Give It Away_!"

"_Everlong_!" screamed Selphie.

Riku suggested, "_Eye of the Tiger_ is a classic."

Tidus disagreed, "No way, _Livin' on a Prayer_ is way better!"

Wakka spoke again, "Is there any Miley Cyrus?"

Everyone in the room looked back at him with a weird look. Tidus answered in a repulsed manner, _"NO!"_

"Anyway…" said Riku, "How about _Psycho Killer_?"

"Nah," rejected Kairi, "I've played that song a million times already. Let's do _One Step Closer_."

"Yeah!" agreed Tidus.

"I've got no problem with that," agreed Riku.

"Um," stalled Sora, "isn't there a lot of _yelling_ in that song?"

"It's called Rock Band, not Sap Band!" Riku said smugly.

"You'll do fine, Sora!" guaranteed Selphie.

The song began loading, causing Sora to say, "Hey! I never agreed to this!"

"Sorry, Sora. There's no 'I' in Rock Band," declared Tidus, adjusting his seat.

The song started, and their animated rockers began getting ready. The three note blocks appeared and began rolling at the bottom of the screen. Sora's block appeared and rolled sideways at the top of the screen. Kairi began her guitar solo.

"There goes my voice for a week…" he said to himself.

After the intro finished, Riku and Tidus joined in.

"Get ready, Sora," said Tidus.

Sora glanced at the top to view the lyrics: _I can-not take this any-more…_ "Well this is stupid—_I can-not take this any-more…"_

Kairi yelled to Sora over the loud echoes of the song, "Hey, you sound just like him!"

"Do not! _Saying every-thing I said be-fore…"_

Riku glanced over at Sora and said, smirking, "Okay, now you're just showing off!"

Sora smiled while he sang. _"All these words they make no sense, I found this in ig-no-rance. Less I hear, the less you say. You'll find that out an-y-way…"_

Kairi and Riku joined Sora on the next part: _"Just like before…"_

Kairi shredded the guitar, Riku, his bass. _"Every-thing you say to me…takes me one step clo-ser to the edge, and I'm a-bout to—break!" _Tidus slammed the drums, sweat going down his cheek and slightly slipping out of his chair.

"_I need a lit-tle room to breathe! 'Cuz I'm one step clo-ser to the edge, I'm a-bout to—BREAK!"_

Everyone in the room yelled out BREAK with Sora. Sora was now enjoying it. With a lot of dramatic fluff, he continued: _"I find the ans-wers aren't so clear…"_

"Go Sora!" cheered Selphie.

He smiled back at her. _"Wish I-could find a-way to dis-a-ppear…All these thoughts they make no sense, I found this in ig-no-rance. No-thing seems to go a-way, o-ver-and-o-ver a-gain…"_

This time, everyone joined in: _"Just like before…"_ Tidus smashed the multicolored drums.

"_EVERY-THING YOU SAY TO ME," _everyone in the room shouted. _"TAKES ME ONE STEP CLO-SER TO THE EDGE, AND I'M A-BOUT TO—BREAK!"_

At this point, Tidus was literally on the edge of his seat. He played three more notes and fell off, nearly knocking over the set. Selphie and Wakka laughed at him until they sank deep in their beanie bag chairs, where they were barely audible.

"_I need a lit-tle room to breathe! 'Cuz I'm one step clo-ser to the edge, I'm a-bout to—BREAK!_

"_Every-thing you say to me…takes me one step clo-ser to the edge, and I'm a-bout to—break!_

"_I need a lit-tle room to breathe! 'Cuz I'm one step clo-ser to the edge, AND I'M A-BOUT TO—" _Tidus banged the drums eight times, _"—BREAK!"_

Kairi executed another guitar solo. During that time, Riku turned to Sora and tried helping him out. "Sora, for the next part, picture that terribly boring math teacher talking right in your face." Riku lowered his voice to being monotonous, "'Bueller…'"

THAT was enough to fire up Sora. Actually thinking the teacher was right there in the game room, Sora hollered at the top of his lungs, _"SHUT UP WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU! SHUT UP!"_

Riku apparently underestimated the boy. "Holy…that was…"

"_SHUT UP!"_

Kairi was above impressed. "Wow, Sora, you're scary!"

Just to be playful, he turned and screamed directly at her face, _"SHUT UP!"_

That made her laugh, so she decided to join Sora in shouting in each others' faces: _"SHUT UP WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"_ They became even louder, rocking their heads with brown and red hair flinging in all directions. _"SHUT UUUUUP!"_

"_I'M ABOUT TO BREAK!"_

They continued singing together while Riku still played his little bass and Tidus his drums. Kairi randomly guessed the notes on the screen while looking at Sora, who glanced back at the screen now and then to check the lyrics. Kairi noticed she was no longer even trying to strum, just staring deeply into Sora's cerulean eyes. She quickly caught herself before Sora noticed and continued playing.

_Whoa…was she staring at me?_

"_Every-thing you say to me…takes me one step clo-ser to the edge, and I'm a-bout to—break!_

"_I need a lit-tle room to breathe! 'Cuz I'm one step clo-ser to the edge, I'm a-bout to—BREAK!_

"_Every-thing you say to me…takes me one step clo-ser to the edge, and I'm a-bout to—break!_

"_I need a lit-tle room to breathe! 'Cuz I'm one step clo-ser to the edge, AND I'M A-BOUT TO—" _Tidus banged the drums eight times once more, _"—BREAK!"_

"That was hot," Riku commented.

"That was okay…for medium," Kairi teased.

"Water," gasped a dehydrated Tidus, "I need water!"

Sora raised his head high and strutted around the room with his hands on his hips. "I guess that was pretty fun."

Selphie and Wakka surfaced from their beanie prisons. The tall boy looked at Riku's bass accuracy and said, "Hmm. Eighty-eight percent accuracy. I can do way better than that."

"Sorry, there's no Hannah Montana," spat Riku.

"Do a quieter song next," begged Selphie, holding her head up, "I think that last one gave me a migraine"

Just then, a voice echoed from the tall ceiling, "Well that was cute."

That took everyone in the circular room by surprise. They all glanced up to see a shadowy figure slowly descending from the ceiling. The dimly lit light bulb made the figure look very dark.

Instinctively, Sora drew his Ultima Keyblade, as did Riku his Way to the Dawn with flashes of light reverberating in their hands. Kairi tried the same thing, but nothing happened. "Riku, can you let me use that Keyblade again?" asked Kairi.

"Kairi, I really think you should just let us handle this!" said Riku.

"But I want to fight with you guys!"

"Aw, let her fight with the big boys, Riku," Sora sympathized.

Riku sighed. In his left hand, a flower like Keyblade flashed to existence. He tossed it to her. "Happy now?"

"Why do you always give me the girly one?"

"Oh, will you just…"

Riku was interrupted by the stranger's laughter. As he descended down further, everyone could see his full body. His skin was pale blue, something the others weren't quite use to seeing. The man had squinty eyes, especially when he laughed. He had blonde and wavy hair with a little blonde stubble on his chin, jaw, and upper lip. He had on a black muscle shirt underneath an opened, black trench coat that stopped above his feet and a pair of long black jeans. A necklace hung down on his chest; the piece was in the shape of three triangles stacked on top of each other, ultimately creating four triangles.

The man continued laughing. He stopped and said, "You know, I really am enjoying this comedic interplay you all got going on here. It's gold."

"Tidus, Selphie, Wakka, you three should probably leave from here now," commanded Sora. "He looks like someone from Organization XIII."

Selphie and Wakka darted up the spiral staircase that leads to the living room. Tidus tripped over the drum set, once again, but actually knocked them over. When he got up, he said, "Don't worry guys, I'll be back to back you guys up before you know it!" He ran over to the staircase yelling, "I'm going to go get my dad's sword!"

Selphie's voice could be heard in the living room, "Doesn't Jecht always tell you to never touch his…"

"Whatever!"

"Man, I tell you, those three are hilarious," said the intruder with a grin.

"Who are you, and what do you want!" demanded Sora, sternly.

The blue man raised his hands in a defensive position, still floating two feet above the floor. "Whoa, whoa. Why so serious? I'm not even a bad guy, or that Orgy Thirteen thing you were talking about! I just wanna talk."

"Too bad you shouldn't have trespassed in my dad's house!" Kairi said, wielding her Keyblade.

"Okay, okay," he said as he lowered his hands, "we can take this outside if you—"

"Kairi?" called a male voice from upstairs. "Kairi, you in the house? I just saw Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie running away on the sidewalk as I drove up. What's going on? Kairi where are—"

"I'M DOWN HERE, DAD!" she yelled up to her father, apparently irritated by his obliviousness.

The mayor walked down the spiral staircase, his steps echoing in throughout the game room. He jumped when he saw the blue man looking back at him, floating and waving, and again when he saw the weapons the three teens were holding. "Kairi," the mayor began, "what are all these boys doing down here with you?"

Kairi sighed, and said, "We were PLAYING, Dad."

"That's what you may call it, but I'm pretty sure they have another idea." (Kairi turns red with fury and mortification.) "Whatever you kids are doing, take it outside. At least out there, law enforcement is watching."

Kairi sighed and stomped upstairs, Sora, Riku, and the blue man following her. Once they were outside on the front lawn in the breezy, night air, Riku said, "Um…okay, where were we?"

The blonde visitor started racking his mind. "Let's see, Sora was all like, 'Who are you and what do you want?' And I was all like, 'Why so serious? Just wanna talk.' Then Red was all like, 'You dirty trespasser!' and then I was all like, 'Let's take this outside, then!' Then your dad walked in. Now we're outside. Okay let's talk…"

"We're listening." Riku had an impatient look in his eyes.

"Will you put those things up?" requested the man, pointing towards their weapons. "I'm not gonna fight you guys, probably because you three would win, and because I have come to ask something of…well, you three…I guess."

Sora was the first to withdraw his weapon, followed by a reluctant Riku. Kairi's Keyblade disappeared automatically, confusing her. She looked over at Riku to find his outstretched hand pointing at her. He must have taken it back from her. That caused her to pout.

"Can you begin by telling us who you are first?" asked Sora, a little less tense than before.

"Seems fair," said the man. "My name's Jeycko and I work for the good. I have a long and whacked-out heritage that involves a lot mystical mumbo-jumbo that neither you nor I wanna hear about."

"Try us," said Kairi.

"Okay, then. I am a Precursor of the Twilight Realm located near the land of Hyrule. Recently, the inhabitants known as the Twili were dominated by five evil forces. My father might have known who these rogues are, but he died in the attack."

"Sorry to hear that," said Riku.

"After they conquered the Twili, we, from the heavens, searched their trail leading to the Realm. We found out that they had been conquering other worlds in the past, slowly but surely, on a collision course heading straight to planet Earth."

"But aren't we on Earth?" asked Sora.

"Yeah," answered Riku, "we are. We can actually manually sail to the other parts of the world."

"Oh, yeah."

Jeycko continued. "So if they reach Earth, they can no doubt find their way here."

"And you're about ask us to fight this battle for you, right?" Sora said with an eyebrow raised.

"No."

Sora's brow went even higher.

"I'm here to ask if you'll JOIN the battle," Jeycko went on. "What we Precursors are trying to do is enlist intergalactic heroes that have fought many hard battles. They must be strong, sharp, compatible with others, and bipedal. Not really kidding about that last part, seeing as how you'll be working with a lot of anthropomorphic creatures. Speaking of that, aren't there two other protagonists that you normally work with?"

Sora answered, "Yeah, but they're in Disney Castle."

Riku muttered to himself, "Anthro…pomo…what?"

Kairi tended to his bumbling, "Anthropomorphic means any animal or non-human object given human-like qualities. What he's saying is that we meet might some animals that stand on two feet or speak."

"Kinda like Donald and Goofy!" Sora realized.

"So does this mean you guys are joining?" asked an excited Jeycko.

"Not exactly," said Riku. "We can't just miss another year of school. We're only teenagers, you know!"

"Yeah," agreed Sora. "Summer school and Saturday school are killer."

"I understand," Jeycko said, halfheartedly. "School first, then save the world."

"Gee, I wish we could at least help…"

Kairi suddenly lit up with an idea in her head. "Hey, I know! We could receive our homework and tests by mail!"

Sora and Riku thought for a moment. The silver haired boy said, "They actually do that?"

"Doesn't that cost a lot of money?" Sora asked.

"My step dad's the mayor, remember?" reminded Kairi. "He can make anything hap…uh oh, how will we tell our parents?"

"You mean how I will tell the mother of mine that I have never once mentioned or thought about throughout the course of my adventures?" asked Sora nonchalantly. "I don't know, I'll just tell her to leave dinner on the table like last time."

"I highly doubt my mother is even still alive," said Riku, one hand on his chin. "Never really checked."

"Wow," said Jeycko, astonished at the care the boys had for their mothers. "Now, I'm only going to take you all to meet the other heroes tonight, and then I'll bring you back so you can take care of your affairs. Then, it's save-the-world time."

"Okay," said Sora, feeling very justified. "Sounds like a plan. When are we telling Don…?"

Quicker than a bullet, they disappeared with a flash. Obviously, Jeycko was the fastest Precursor.

* * *

"…ald and Goofy?" Sora finished, now feeling a bit dazed by the intense distance they just traveled. "Hey, we're in Disney Castle…but how…" The four were now standing in the middle of the courtyard, fancily trimmed hedges surrounding them. It was in the middle of the day, here.

"You see, fellas, we Precursors don't use gummi vessels. We use our energy-reliant Light Teleportation ability to get where we wanna go. Very handy when you're late for things."

A few feet away from them was a snoring dog man, dressed in a royal knight's outfit, lying on his back sleeping the day away.

"Please tell me that ain't one of 'em," said Jeycko, staring at the dog man.

Sora couldn't be more overjoyed to see him. He pounced on him, screaming, "GOOFY! I thought I'd never see you again!"

That action woke him up. The dog was confused at first, wondering what the heck a teen was doing on top of him. Just then he realized who that was. "Sora?" he said in his well…goofy, but happy voice. "What are you, Riku, and Kairi doing here?"

"I'll explain later," Sora said excitedly. "We have to get Donald here!"

"Okay," Goofy replied, "I'll get him! OH, TOODLES!" (1)

Suddenly, a Mickey Mouse insignia mounted on a pole with wheels rolled into the scene. Goofy opened the insignia's front compartment, taking out a telephone. Sora, Riku, Kairi, and Jeycko gave each other confused looks. Goofy dialed a number and said, "Donald get down here quick! There are a few people you haven't seen in a while!"

Approximately three point twenty two seconds later, Donald showed up from the Castle's entrance, saying in his ducky voice, "Is it the mafia again? 'Cuz now I'm ready for 'em!" Donald got a glimpse of Sora, accompanied by Riku, Kairi, and another blue guy. "Oh, it's you guys!' he screamed over them, running to give Sora a hug.

"This is cute, alright," Jeycko said, waiting for the good feelings to go on hold.

Goofy asked, "Uh, Sora, who's your friend?"

"Oh, that's Jeycko," replied Sora, "and he has a lot to tell you guys."

Jeycko explained to Donald and Goofy about the threat going from world to world, conquering and sometimes destroying each. He told them about how his own Realm had been overpowered, and about his people and their special abilities. And lastly, he explained about the team of other heroes already in progress. "And since you two have journeyed with Sora, I thought it would be natural that I come and ask you guys to join him."

"Well," said Donald, "We have to get the King's permission." Donald took from his pocket a small communicator device, pressed a button, and an illuminated 3-D image of King Mickey appeared on it. It looked like something out of Star Wars. "Your majesty, Goofy and I must depart to other worlds again."

The tiny image of the mouse spoke, blinking in and out, "Wait, hold on…Yea I'll take three McCafes…one iced mocha…make that two iced mochas….What do you want, honey?" Mickey was apparently talking to his wife…at McDonalds. Once again, Sora, Kairi, Riku, and Jeycko exchanged odd looks. This time, Donald and Goofy joined in. "How are you guys going to depart?" the King asked. "I sealed the barriers shut last week."

"Well," began Goofy, "Sora found someone who can teleport. He's from…"

"Make that last McCafe an iced latte, please." The small, illuminated figure was actually in a sitting position. He must have been in the drive-thru. "Oh…you guys must be talking about the Precursors of the Twilight Realm…a rather rude guy named Glennatus appeared in my throne room and told me everything…Keep the change. No, I insist. Just take the change!"

Queen Minnie's voice could be heard in the background, next to him. "Honey, if he doesn't want the change, don't make him take it."

Mickey's figure turned from his wife next him to the opened window, where the McDonalds worker was. His small illuminated hand lifted some coins tried shoving it out the window. "Just take the change!" said Mickey through gritted teeth. "Take it!"

Donald said with an uneasy tone, "Um, is this a bad time, your majesty?"

"Of course not," said Mickey, his calm tone returning. "I had to reject the young man, because I can't manage my kingdom AND help save the worlds."

"You did the last few times," Riku spoke up.

Hoping the King couldn't here Riku, Donald said, "Well, Goofy and I will go with Sora, Riku, and Kairi since they have already agreed to going. We'll be back to say our goodbyes."

"Okay then, good luck with meeting the new heroes…" His figure had apparently driven up to the next window. "Let's see…one iced mocha for me…iced latte for you, honey…"

"Thank you, dear," said Queen Minnie.

"…and one iced mocha for you, Pluto," King Mickey finished. "See you guys later." His image drained down into the base of the communicator.

"Well that was odd," commented Kairi.

"Yeah," agreed Jeycko, "I was wondering who that third McCafe was for. So…you guys ready to teleport?"

Riku, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy looked to Sora. The teen said, "Um, sure. Let's go."

"Cool with me." In broad daylight, Jeycko conjured up the bright light, and they were gone.

* * *

Disregarding that last teleportation to Disney Castle, Sora and co. were the only ones that didn't appear in the cloud room _while _saying something silly.

The party of five appeared next to the Cooper gang, causing a few surprised looks from everyone in the room.

To everyone, the place didn't seem too different from the other eerie places they've traveled to, but it still amazed them that they were standing on virtually nothing.

One thing Kairi noticed was that all but three of the other people in the room were not human; in fact the three others didn't seem _completely_ human. They had elf-like ears, one with short ones, two with really long ones. The man in the green tunic seemed to be sleeping and standing at the same time. Kairi noticed the way how he rocked gently from side to side and the extremely dark circles under his closed eyes. He woke for a second or two, glancing at the newcomers. His eyes stayed fixated on Kairi for a second longer; he gave her a small, sincere smile, and fell back asleep. Kairi was the only one to notice that small motion…

Sora looked around, trying to find any sign of Jeycko. "I see all the heroes," he said to no one in particular, "but what I don't see are the Precursor guys."

"Give it time," Riku replied, crossing his arms, "and something will surely come up. Hey, am I the only one who's in the mood for a McCafe right now?"

"Yeah, I could go for a cappuccino right now." Sora rubbed his belly.

Donald said, "I wish the king could've gotten me a latte."

"Yeah," Goofy added, "a midday boost is just what I need."

Sora smiled at the thought of food. "I know this isn't the time or place, but are you hungry, too, Kairi? Kairi? Hello, anyone home?"

The teenaged girl snapped back to reality. She took her gaze off the sleeping elf-man to Sora's cerulean eyes. "Um, no I'm not hungry. Just a little sleepy."

"Oh, well lattes and mochas can cure that. But try to stay awake; you don't know what could happen in places this…"

"Right, Sora."

Donald noticed something a few feet away from the raccoon, turtle, and hippo. "Hey, I think more people are coming." When the duck mage pointed to the spot, a sudden bright light illuminated there, and three animal-like creatures, one of them holding a wooden mask of sorts, appeared with their backs turned to everyone. Two of them had orange fur, both in their sleepwear for some reason, and a larger red creature stood there with no shirt, camo pants, and boots. One of the smaller orange creatures held the plank high over his head. It appeared to be _snoring._ The other orange individual was female, had blonde hair, and sounded like she was complaining about something. The larger animal-man seemed to be trying to get her attention.

Soon after he did get her attention, her expression went from angry to sheepish. She asked, "Who are all of you?'

That was one question that burned to be answered on everyone's mind.

* * *

_(1) If you don't know what this refers to, you have no soul and do not deserve to breath. Okay, so it's from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. That's how they call it. _

_CadeXHybrid: Wow, that's my longest chapter yet. Almost 7,000 words._

Roxas: Congratulations, Hybrid, you just turned this into a song fic.

_Roxas? The heck are you doing here?_

Roxas: Aku Aku was losing out on beauty sleep, so i decided to step in from Sora's subconscious. I'm a little curious as to why you chose to put a Rock Band curve in the middle.

_To show their friendship in a fun and interesting way. I thought it was cool, Sora on vocals._

Roxas: I'd a liked to see Sora try Chop Suey.

_Yeah, but you and i both know that would've been a train wreck._

Roxas: Touche. So how 'bout some new bios, courtesy of me:

Sora

**Age: **15  
**Gender: **Male  
**Species: **Human

A lot can be said about this fifteen year-old hero, like the fact that he has been one of the few chosen by the Keyblade, a weapon that wards off the darkness, and that he's my Other. He received the Keyblade about a year and a half ago, when his hangout island was being devoured by the Heartless, dark creatures with a serious misnomer. Whenever Sora defeats a Heartless foe, a heart is released to Kingdom Hearts, a giant heart shaped moon in the sky. But it's really us _nobodies_ who have no hearts. In his first adventure, Sora journeyed with his new friends Donald and Goofy to many worlds to search for his lost friends Riku and Kairi, who became lost along with Sora when the island was devoured. I'm guessing Sora's house was okay, because he never once whined about his mom or anything. In the end of that, Sora freed Kairi to Destiny Islands, but couldn't stay with her (bummer) because he still needed to find Riku. In the end of his second adventure, he was finally able to reunite himself with Riku and Kairi, with Donald, Goofy, and the King's help of course. Sora first appeared as the young and naïve protagonist in _Kingdom Hearts__, 2002._

Riku

**Age: **16  
**Gender: **Male  
**Species: **Human

The long-time best friend of Sora, Riku and Sora have grown up together on Destiny Islands, having their own make-believe adventures with wooden swords on their hangout island. Riku used to dream of what lay out in the other worlds, instead of staying on Destiny Islands all his life. When their island was being taken over by the Heartless, Riku chose to embrace the darkness, causing some friction between him and Sora in their later adventures. Riku was given dark powers and control over the Heartless, that of which contradicted to what Sora was fighting for. During the second adventure, he fell deep into the Real of Darkness, changing his features to a great extent. During peaceful times Riku's demeanor is a bit troublesome and older-bother-like. Riku starred alongside Sora and Kairi in _Kingdom Hearts__, 2002._

Kairi

**Age: **15  
**Gender: **Female  
**Species: **Human

Kairi didn't show up in Sora and Riku's lives until they were young children. She actually appeared on the island's coast during a meteor shower when she was only four or five. She quickly became best friends with the two boys, along with Wakka, Selphie, and Tidus. Her real origins are from the world of Radiant Garden, where she was the princess of that land. Don't really know how, but she ended up on Destiny Islands when Radiant Garden fell victim to the darkness, and she was adopted by the mayor. Kairi displays an outright friendly temperament to anyone that isn't dressed in long, black cloaks surrounded by lethal enemies waiting to do her harm. Still wondering when Sora and her will get a little close so…whatever. Kairi starred as Sora's, I'm guessing, love interest in the insanely popular _Kingdom Hearts__, 2002._

Donald Duck

**Age: **Timeless  
**Gender: **Male  
**Species: **Duck

This impatient duck of serves as the King's Royal Court Mage in magical affairs at Disney Castle. He, Goofy, and Sora journeyed together across many worlds in search of King Mickey, Riku, and Kairi. Donald also uses his vast knowledge of magic and wizardry to defend the worlds and his kingdom from the ruthless heartless. Usually, he wields a three foot staff that has some sort of motif or symbol at the tip. (Now, he uses the Save the Queen staff.) When in doubt, Donald Duck casts his lucky Cure spell on any friend in need of a quick boost. If it ain't business, or his sweetheart, Daisy, then he has no time to waste on it. Speaking of that, you already know she's gonna give 'em a hard time for having to leave so soon. This pants-less duck in blue has starred in many other occasions, but he especially played a big role in _Kingdom Hearts__, 2002._

Goofy

**Age: **Timeless  
**Gender:** Male  
**Species: **Dog (No distinct breed)

Goofy is the Captain of Clumsy, Confidence, Comic Relief, and Royal Knights of Disney Castle. Goofy, Donald, and Sora, the chosen Keyblader, trekked around the worlds in search of the King, Riku, and Kairi. He handles his job with somewhat devotion, despite frequently sleeping on the job in the Castle's royal courtyard. Due to his dislike of using actual weapons in combat, he uses his equally lethal shield against the many Heartless and other enemies who threaten to attack him, his friends, and his kingdom. (Goofy uses the Save the King shield, now.) Goofy is somewhat of a laid-back, happy-going optimist, always finding the brightest sides of situations. Donald and Sora have become his family, seeing as how they have all been together through the good and dire times of their adventures. Our favorite, silly dog of joy has appeared in many cartoons, but played as one of the secondary protagonists in _Kingdom Hearts__, 2002._

Jeycko

**Age: **556  
**Gender: **Male  
**Species: **(Precursor) Twili

Yet another one of Twilight's Precursors. He is the one who gave the short speech in Chapter 1, if you remember. He wears the trademark black clothing, along with a Triforce symbol hanging on a necklace. Next to Orphco, Jeycko is next in command as the leader and coordinator of the Precursors. Although he is as organized as Orphco, he is also a little more laid-back, often being lenient with certain rules and never being uptight with anyone. If there's one way to describe him, with the blonde hair, blonde stubble around his mouth, and squinty eyes, it's that he looks a lot like a blue version of Owen Wilson. You know, that dude from Wedding Crashers? I didn't see the movie either, but you know who I'm talking about. Jeycko is another original character of _CadeXHybrid._

_Wow, you did a not-terrible job with those bios._

Roxas: Thanks. You made me say a lot of big words. So...when are you including me in the story?

_Sorry, i have to take this call..._

Roxas: That's not a phone, that's your hand!

_Anyway, next chapter, we'll finally get back to our bandicoot heroes, uniting them with the others on Wumpa Island. Enjoy._

Roxas: Seriously, could i get an estimate on when i'll be...

_Chapter 600, if you don't let me end this chapter._

Roxas: sheeeeeesh...now i know what Aku Aku means...

_What? What does he say about me?_

Roxas: On that note, I'm ending this chapter.


	8. First Briefing

Hi, y'all! Crunch here! Reminding you to never play with guns or fire, random acts of useless kindness are always appreciated, and read the daily news! It's learning-tastic! Crunch a-way!

Chapter 8: First Briefing

"Don't everybody answer me at once," Coco said, irritated by the silence everyone in the cloud room gave her.

Still clinging to Jak's leg, Daxter momentarily braved up and said, "Um, sweetheart, I don't think half of us even speak our language."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is, I heard some of those clowns speak over there," he pointed to Sora, Donald, Goofy, Riku, and Kairi, "and I don't think they're regular-tongues. Him either," he pointed over at Link. "He woke up and started talkin' to himself in some kind of weird other language."

"We speak English too, you know," said Bentley. "I'm fluent in French, Italian, Spanish, and German."

"What about you two, over there?" Coco asked, pointing to Ratchet and Clank.

Ratchet decided to speak after looking at Clank, "Yeah we speak whatever language is happenin', I guess."

"Well then, that's not exactly half of us, is it Daxter?" Clank commented.

Sora and the others were looking around at everyone, completely understanding what they were saying to each other. Sora spoke up for all of his friends, saying, "WAIT A MINUTE! We can speak perfect English! Just like you guys!"

Daxter looked baffled. "Wha…?"

"What makes you think we don't speak English?" asked Kairi.

"Oh, I guess…well you kids, uh, share a lot of Asian features, and when I heard you all talkin' somethin' about 'lattes', 'mochas', and 'McCafes', I figured you guys were foreign or something'.

"Well we're not," said an offended Riku. "We may look different from your squirrelly butt, but we are definitely not foreign!

"Only one who's foreign is that guy over there," Murray said, talking about the sleeping Link.

Jak yawned. "What's supposed to be happening? I'm getting a little impatient…"

Crunch said, "Well something is supposed to be happening. Orphco promised us."

Sly turned around to the bandicoots. "A blue guy named Orphco teleported you guys, too?"

"Yep," said Crash, Coco, and Crunch very plainly.

"Some crazy war veteran dude teleported us," Ratchet said. "He was blue, too. Then we met his teenaged daughter. Then they started fighting. It was very, very uncomfortable."

"We were teleported by a blue feller named Jeggo, or Jello, or…" staggered Goofy.

"Jeycko!" Donald corrected.

"Oh, yeah!"

Jak yawned again. "That guy over there has the right idea…"

"Jak! Stay awake!" alerted Keira.

Jak's eyes flew open, but soon locked up again.

"No use," commented Daxter.

"Geeze," Coco said to Crash, "I wish Orphco would have let us get dressed before we came. It's so chilly in here!"

Crash replied, "Na ekkey get daga dow."

"Well if you didn't steal my Hello Kitty boxers, you wouldn't be worrying about them being too tight!"

Suddenly, amongst all of the chatter, five beings appeared with great flashes above them all. Looking up, the eighteen heroes noticed Orphco, Glen, Jeycko, Gladdus, and Eurathaccus floating ten feet above their heads, looking down back at them. Orphco, with his hands behind his back in a martial arts-type stance, said joyfully, "Greetings, heroes."

Daxter asked out loud, "Who's the bald guy?"

"My name is Orphco," he answered simply. "As most of you know, we are the Precursors of the Twilight Realm."

That statement roused Jak. Bright eyed, he said, "Precursors? YOU guys are Precursors? Why aren't you orange and fuzzy?"

"Let me answer that," volunteered Glen. "Ya see, every world has their own type of precursors, your world having short and fuzzy ones, just like your friend there. The Twilight Realm's got us. We don't look much different from our successors."

With his usual loud monotone, General Eurathaccus said, "Let's get down to business! Our world and a number of other societies have been conquered and destroyed by five enemies of light heading straight to planet Earth! We've all gathered you here because you have agreed to help in this fight against their evil powers."

Surprisingly, Link momentarily woke up. He apparently had heard everything so far and began to protest in his own language. He yelled and flailed his arms like a crazy person. No one could understand him but the Precursors.

"What's with that guy?" asked Daxter. "Brainiac, you know what language he's speaking?"

Bentley shook his head. "I can't say that I've heard of anything like that ever in my life."

"Okay, what about you, Clankers?"

"His speech does not compute with any language in my circuits," Clank answered.

"Let me tell you what language that is," said Glen, sounding very sheepish. "He's speaking Hylian. It's the language of Hyrule."

"And from what I hear," Orphco said angrily, "He was forced here! What did I tell you, Glen? NEVER take any of the heroes against their wills!"

"Yeah, yeah," Glen said trying to ease the situation, "but we need Link! He just saved Hyrule from Ganon and Zant's evil reign! And Zant was a bad nut!"

Link protested something else in his Hylian language. Glen said, "Shhh! Dude, be quiet! You're gonna get me in trouble!"

"Egad! Did you disrespect Princess Zelda's throne room? We oughtta have you DISCHARGED!"

"I'm sorry, I was just a little exhausted from having to deal with this mouse king…"

"Like, can we get on with this?" Gladdus said for the first and only time.

"Right," Jeycko interjected. "We don't have much time till they reach Earth. They're somewhere in space right now. It's not very clear _where _they'll land, but we'll update you when it comes. By that time, you will all be on Wumpa Island with Crash, Coco, Crunch, and—"

"Wait a minute!" Coco interjected. "Why at our house?"

"It's nice and big," he answered simply.

"But we don't even have running wat—"

"Moving on. We will bring you all back to your worlds so guys like Jak and Link can get a good night's sleep. Of course, Link probably won't wanna come back. I don't blame 'em." Jeycko shot a dirty look to Glen. "Anyway, get well rested, get up bright and early, pack up all necessities, and prepare to arrive in Wumpa Island."

"And don't worry," Orphco concluded. "We will update you all as soon as we hear about any other developments."

"But wait," stalled Kairi, "we might need a little bit longer to prepare. We still have school and homework to worry about."

Jeycko assured her, "Don't worry, I'll make sure you guys are ready before I pick you up. I have no problem waiting."

"Thanks, because I don't know how long Kairi's plan could take!" Sora joked around.

"Alright, let us bring you back to your worlds," said Orphco. "I shall bring Sly, Bentley, and Murray back to—"

"Wumpa Island!" Sly quickly answered. "We can't go back to Paris with Carmelita hot on our tails."

"Right. I shall bring the Cooper gang back with the four Bandicoot family members to Wumpa Island. Glennatus, you will bring Link back to Hyrule safe and sound, in Ordon Village. Eurathaccus will bring Ratchet and Clank to Metropolis, and Gladdus will take Jak, Daxter, and Keira to Haven City. That is your home, correct?"

"Correct, Mister Orphco," Keira answered.

"Good. And lastly, Jeycko will return the likes of Sora, Donald, Kairi, Riku, and Goofy to their respective homes in Disney Castle and Destiny Islands." Orphco bowed to them all. "Have a good evening, for tomorrow, you depart."

The Precursors all teleported with their teleportees, taking each group or individual to their own worlds. Well, all but one sneaky Precursor teleported…but who could that be?

* * *

_Who could it be, who could it be, who could it be?! Is the suspense just killing you? I thought so. _


	9. Invention of a Lifetime

Remember kids, don't play with power tools! Crunch a-way!

Chapter 9: Invention of a Lifetime

"For now, you boys can have separate rooms," Coco told Sly, Bentley, and "The Murray." The bandicootess had generously given them three of the four guest rooms on the upstairs floor. They were standing in the open hall that over looked the living room, kitchen, and the front door.

"Thanks for the hospitality, Miss Bandicoot. You don't know how much this is appreciated," Sly thanked sincerely.

"I may have an idea," she said with a smile. "Hey, are you going to sleep in that tux?"

"No, I've got clothes under."

"Aw, man!" said a bushed Murray. "Long night. 'The Murray' needs his rest…" He walked into his room and flopped down onto the soft bed. "Oh yeah, this is heavenly heaven."

Bentley rolled to his room. He called out to them, "Goodnight, everybody, I've got a feeling it's going to be big day tomorrow."

Just when they thought they had seen the last flash of the night when Orphco dropped them off, yet another appeared in the living room. Coco and Sly looked over the banister to see who it was this time; it was none other than Glen. The Precursor was supporting up a slumbering Link with his left arm. Coco said, "What are you doing here with him?"

Glen whispered as if he would be heard by viscous killers, "Listen—Link is a good fighter—we need him! I don't care what Orphco says, we have to have this guy fighting alongside you! And don't worry, he's been transported to your world now, meaning my powers can let him speak perfect English now."

Crash walked out from the fourth room upstairs next to Sly and Coco. "Keek a ogogo?"

"Yes, he's staying with us, Crash."

Glennatus gave all three of them a smile. "Thanks, you guys are the best! I guess that's while they call ya heroes, eh?" And on that note, he disappeared in a flash, leaving Link on the floor.

Sly and Crash lugged Link's heavy body (most of that being weapons and armor) to the downstairs bedroom on the left. It was a small room with a window in the back, a bed alongside the back wall, and a simple fan. They dropped the young warrior on the bed, exhausted.

"Whoa," panted Sly, "how does this guy move with all this junk on him?"

"Ideeka," said Crash.

"Yeah, I don't know either."

"Hey, Crash!" Coco called from the living room. "Come over here, quick!"

Crash said to Sly, "Well, goonaba."

"Goodnight to you, too, Crash," Sly said, and walked out the room and to his upstairs room.

Crash walked over to Coco, asking, "Whaba?"

Coco answered, "Before we got mixed up with all that Precursor stuff, I was planning on giving you your last birthday present. Wait here, it's in my closet."

Crash waited anxiously and excitedly for Coco to return from her room, bouncing up and down on the cushions. He only did that for about twenty two seconds, as Coco came back in the room, holding something behind her back.

Annoyed, she said, "Crash! Close your dang eyes!"

"Oh!" Crash shut his eyes real tight until he felt something heavy and metallic set down on his head. It was some kind of giant, metal machine that fit right on his head. It had antennas, tweaks, flashing blue and red light bulbs, and a green screen-type thing on the front, right above Crash's forehead. "Ebba haga?"

"No, Crash, it is not a hat. It's my newest invention, The Vocabulizer!"

"Huh…"

Coco laughed and said, "No, Crash, with this invention, it will exponentially increase your vocabulary, hopefully somewhat affecting your common sense."

"Ah…huh…"

Coco shouted in his face, "YOU'LL BE ABLE TO TALK, DUMMY!"

"Ha, ha, ha, COOH!"

"Now, normally I would do this in front of other science colleagues, but since I use you as my guinea pig for everything else, I'll let this time slide." Coco walked up to Crash and started twisting and turning knobs and switches on his Vocabulizer helmet. "Let's see…your stupidity level…one hundred six. Your common sense is…present fifty percent of the time…"

Crash yawned, bored of Coco's intellectual-talk. Several yawns later, his "hat" started beeping and buzzing. "Whoa…"

"Yes Crash! Now, I won't lie; your head will spin like…actually you're used to spinning so this will be quick and painless!" Coco reached to the back of the helmet and flipped a small ON/OFF switch. She quickly stepped back as the blue and red light bulbs began to flash like crazy. The beeping and buzzing became more intense as well; Crash's eyes began spinning in his head like slot machines. Suddenly, the machine sent a high voltage shock directly down from his head to his fried, furry feet.

When it finally ended, Crash was just standing there, fur blackened and extremely ruffled. There were numerous holes in his white muscle shirt, revealing more blackened fur. And thank goodness, there were holes in all the right places on his red boxers. "Ugh…can I have your yellow boxers, they look better on me."

"Oh my God, Crash! You spoke! Say something else!"

"Hey you're right," Crash said, getting more and more excited, "I AM speaking!" Crash's voice was a little bit of a mix of cartoony and strong-sensed. When he talked, his chest seemed to puff out more.

"Yes! Once again I am successful! Brains and beauty…"

"Brains and _what?_" Crash asked, laughing loudly.

"Hey—shut up!" shouted Coco, a little embarrassed. "I gave life to your speech! I recommend you treat me with respect!"

"Whatever, so can I take this heavy hat off now?"

"Sorry, that's a no-go. You hafta have it on your head for approximately forty-eight hours so all that artificial knowledge can sink in."

"Oh, man! That's neck cramps city."

"Sorry, that's the way how it goes," Coco said, crossing her arms.

"But seriously, those yellow boxers, I'm gonna need those."

"No way! I'm gonna need my red ones back!"

"Here, you can take 'em…"

"Not now, you FREAK!"

Crunch walked in the front door with Aku Aku floating by his side. "…Precursors and they're gonna tell us when them bad guys land. You got all that?"

"Yes, yes," said an impatient Aku Aku, "but what I don't get is why none of you decided to wake me up!"

"We're sorry Aku…" apologized Coco.

"Crunch goin' to bed," said Crunch, in third person for some reason. "Crunch sleepy."

"Oh great," Crash said to Coco out loud, "he's goin' through another one of those phases where he speaks in third person! This'll be a long two weeks."

Crunch AND Aku looked absolutely astonished. "Did he just…" began the witch doctor mask.

"Good lord, he DID!" finished Crunch.

"But how—"

"All thanks to my new invention, The Vocabulizer! Now, Crash has to wear this thing on his head for two days so the comprehension technology can become permanent."

"I see," said Aku Aku. "That is ingenious."

"Yeah, she should win the Nobel Peace Prize!" Crash said, actually sincere.

"And he's funny, too!" said Crunch. "Yep, Crunch and the little buddy will be hanging out more often!"

"Well, we have a big day ahead of us," proclaimed Aku Aku. "So who's sleeping on the couch? I sense four people in the rooms. We only have two bedrooms left."

Crash quickly answered, "Well I gotta lug this heavy thing around, and I think it would best if I had a bed to lay it on…so that's one bed."

"Hey, where did Crunch go?" asked Coco. They heard the bedroom door close upstairs. "D'oh!"

"Sorry Coco, you're on the couch…" Aku Aku said before suspending himself in a tranquil mode, a.k.a. sleep.

Crash put his hand on her shoulder, "I really wish it could be another way…ah well." He ran into the downstairs bedroom on the left, a.k.a. Coco's room.

"You guys are buttheads."

* * *

_Crash can talk. Well not yet, he has to keep that hefty thing on his head for two days. Hopefully, he can manage._

_And i've seen that sofa, it's horrible. It' made from crudely sanded wood, splinters pokin' everywhere. The only cushion they put on it is a thin quilt draped over the seat and the back. So, it's like a park bench with a blanket. It's horrible._

_Anyway, next time, some goodbyes, and later, a plumbing project and another futuristic vision._


	10. The Departed

Hiya! Crunch here giving you a friendly reminder to never use leeches as soap! Stay in school! Crunch a-way!

_Thank you Crunch, that's enough._

Chapter 10: The Departed

Metropolis…

"Wait a minute, why didn't they come to me?" asked Quark. "Seriously, I'm the champion of the universe! What gives?"

"It might have something to do with you trying to kill us twice in the past, along with the whole galaxy," answered Clank.

"Yeah," agreed Ratchet, "and we just came by to pick up our equipment." Ratchet put on his commando helmet, now fully equipped with commando armor.

"Don't think this will stop me from following you! Great heroes always find each other!" shouted the large man in the green jumpsuit as Ratchet and Clank walked out of his office. "What am I doing in an office, anyway? I don't sign papers!"

"Now, you do," Clank joked as they rounded out the doorway, paying him no mind.

Once they reached the busy, outside world, they waited on a grassy rooftop for the general to arrive. They didn't wait long, however, because Eurathaccus called from up above, "Up here, boys!"

He slowly descended in front of the Demolition Duo, and said, "You ladies ready to depart?"

Clank turned to Ratchet with a confused expression. He asked, "Did he not just call us boys and then refer to us as ladies?"

"Um, yeah." Ratchet decided to answer both of them, and they were off.

* * *

Haven City…

Jak was now wearing his blue tunic and white undershirt along with his khaki pants and brown boots (_The Lost Frontier_ outfit). He didn't quite have all of his gear on; the strap holding his gun, the Jetboard, and the other tools were laid across the control panel in front of him. He stared at his reflection in the blank screen, adjusting his collar. He called across the room to Daxter, who was sitting next to Tess.

"Hey Dax, you almost ready?"

Daxter was in his own world. He said to the female ottsel next to him, "You know I'll miss you, right baby?"

"Oh, Daxter," she said, scratching his chin, "You have to promise to come back to your lollipop in one piece!"

"Promise, honey-girl."

"AND you have to promise to not fall for another girl while you're gone."

"…" Daxter just stared with wide eyes.

"Daxter, I'm serious."

"Don't you know that you're the only girl for me?" Daxter said, saying what she wanted to hear.

"Oh Daxy, you're so sweet!" They were about to close in to start making out…

"Oh, God, will you two get a room?" Jak complained, completed disgusted by their gushy feelings.

They and the whole team were in the New Haven's HQ. Sig, Ashelin, Torn, and Samos were there to see them off. Samos was having a discussion with Keira by the HQ's entrance.

"Now listen, young lady, I know I can't stop you from going with Jak and Daxter, but I will advise against a few things…"

"Oh, joy," she said sarcastically.

"While you are on Other Earth, you must not do anything dangerous, stupid, or reckless. So don't do anything Jak or Daxter do! Especially Daxter! Now, Jak may be a strong boy, but he cannot protect you from everything. The plants and rocks tell me blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…" Keira stopped listening at 'reckless'.

Jak walked over to Sig, who was standing with his arms crossed by the central unit next to Ashelin and Torn. "We could really use you guy's help. It wouldn't hurt if you all came along."

"No thanks," said Torn. "I don't travel much."

"And someone's gotta make sure he stays out of trouble," Ashelin said.

"What about you, Sig?" asked Jak.

The large, black man turned to Jak and smiled. "You know I wouldn't miss a party like this for the world!"

"So, you're coming?"

"Nope, sorry, Cherries. I got an invitation to a Kras City racing tournament."

Jak sighed. "You sure? There might be a lot of killing involved where we're going."

"But even more where I'M going."

In front of the entrance, Gladdus materialized with an impatient look. "Alright, move it or lose it, peoples! There's a sale that ends in ten minutes."

"I guess this is goodbye," said Torn.

"More like 'see you later'," Ashelin waved.

Daxter finally peeled himself off of Tess. "Well, it's Hero Time. I'll be back, baby!"

"Hurry back!" Tess yelled as Daxter walked towards Gladdus.

"Take care, Keira," Samos said, a tear in his eye. "And remember Jak, a hero is only as good as his heroine."

"If you say so, Samos," Jak said, now standing next to Gladdus.

Keira joined him. "Bye daddy!" she said, waving.

"Later, Big Sig!" Daxter saluted.

Jak signaled to Gladdus that they were ready. "Let's take off."

"About time." Gladdus began charging her energy.

Seconds before teleportation, Ashelin walked up to Jak and planted a kiss on him, earning surprised looks from both Jak and Torn, and a completely blind-sighted look from Keira. Before she had time to release her claws, they were gone; Ashelin stepped back just in time. Gladdus also had enough time to say, "Oh, that's dirty."

She said to no one in particular, "That oughta piss her off."

* * *

Destiny Islands…

"What island did you say you and your friends are going to?' asked the mayor behind the newspaper he was reading.

"Wumpa Island, Dad," Kairi repeated herself.

"And you want to receive your homework on that island?" he asked.

"Yes, dad."

"Well, at least you're still thinking about school."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, a little offended.

"Don't think I don't know what's going on with you…the boys, the leaving for a long time…"

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!" she shouted, her voice ringing throughout her father's home office.

"It's okay, I'll send you some money to get started."

"Started on what?"

"Don't worry, Kairi, your step mother used to strip in a midnight club around your age. That's how we met."

"I'm leaving," Kairi said blandly as she paced out the doorway, red faced.

"Don't forget to send some of that salary-income to me," the mayor said, lowering the paper so he could see her. "Lord knows I need a new air-hockey table."

Kairi came back in the room. "So you'd be comfortable letting your own daughter strip in front of hundreds of strangers?"

"Air-hockey, honey."

"Whatever, Dad. Can you please just send Sora, Riku, and my school work to Wumpa Island? It's a big island off the coast of Australia somewhere."

"Sure, sweety. Tell Sora and Riku I said hi."

"Um…okay. Bye Dad." Kairi waved awkwardly, picked up her luggage, and walked out her father's office.

"Have a good time, Kairi!"

* * *

"My goodness, they want to kill _all_ of us?" asked Sora's mom, surprised.

"Yeah, Mom," Sora said, "and it's up to me, Riku, and Kairi to stop them before they completely annihilate everyone on Earth. And don't worry, Mom—Kairi already set up this mail thing so all our school work will be sent to us while we're gone."

"Oh, thank goodness. Sweet, sweet Kairi. How long will you be gone this time?"

"Hopefully it won't be a year; there are only five guys to fight."

Sora's mom sighed. "Okay, Sora. Oh—I packed you a few Fiber One bars in your bag, just in case you get hungry on your big adventure."

"Really?" Sora reached down into his large bag and pulled out a wrapped bar. He ripped it open and took a bite out of the treat. "Hmm…" Sora said, chewing. "There's no way that this is fiber. It's way too good!"

Just then, an Indian man wearing a suit and tie appeared out of nowhere and corrected Sora, "Actually, Sora, it is fiber."

Sora said with a mouthful, "Ajay Mehta?!"

"It is an excellent source for thirty five percent of your daily value of fiber. Plastic, no. Fiber, yes."

"Gee, thanks! Now I know!" Sora said, a rainbow appearing over his head.

Sora's mom suddenly had a confused expression and asked Sora, "How did he get in our house?" Sora and his mom were ready to ask Ajay Mehta how, but when they looked where he was previously standing, there was just air.

"He's gone…?"

"Well, anyway Sora, be safe, and come back whole." Sora's kissed him.

"I will, Mom," Sora assured, and walked out the front door of his home.

From their porch Sora's mother called, "Oh and if you run into your father out there, do punch him in the stomach for me, please."

This confused Sora, as he had never known his father. "Um…okay. See ya!"

* * *

Riku had gotten up early that morning and decided to wait where Jeycko told them to gather. It was their hangout spot on the small island where the crooked paopu tree sat. He leaned against it in his usual manner with his arms crossed. Riku bags were next to legs, straps flapping in the breeze. Jeycko was a few meters away from him, leaning against one of the tall coconut trees, looking up at the bright blue sky. His trench-cloak fluttered

Over in distance, they could Sora and Kairi strolling together with their luggage on the wooden bridge that led to the rest of the island. Sora was telling Kairi about the Ajay Mehta incident. "And then the Fiber One guy randomly disappeared. It was weird and cool at the same time. And then my mom said something about my father, that if I see him to hit him or something."

"Wow, do you think you'll actually meet him?" Kairi asked.

"How will I know, I don't know what he looks like." Changing the subject, Sora asked, "So, how was your morning? Did your dad set up the mailing thing?"

"Yes," Kairi began, "and he also thinks I'm going to be a stripper. How crazy is that?"

"…" Sora kept walking with a blank expression.

"Sora?"

"…" Sora blinked twice. "Yeah…that's…tree…"

"That's not even a complete sentence!" Kairi yelled to Sora.

"Hey Riku and Jeycko!" Sora said, pretending to be over-excited to see them. "Ah, man, you guys are looking valiant!"

"Do you even know what valiant means, Sora?" Riku asked as the two teens finally reached the small piece of land.

"Of course I do—we're ready to depart, captain Jeycko!" Sora exclaimed, now sounding very desperate.

"Okay then," the Precursor said, walking over to the trio. "Just close your eyes and think about something that makes you feel peaceful."

"Do I have to?" Sora asked, sweating.

"Um…no, I just thought that might help the teleportation process, but do what you want, I guess."

With his destination Wumpa Island, Jeycko energized the island with light, and teleported.

* * *

_Next up, Link wakes up from his bout with insomnia. And who will Coco call to get water flowing throughout the Bandicoot home? I don't even know yet..._


	11. From Oblivion With Love

Chapter 11: From Oblivion With Love

A ghostly image drifted in outer space. It drifted to Earth at a great speed, its phantom-like vessel not appearing on any radar. It glided to Earth's bottom hemisphere, Antarctica to be exact. The phantom stopped just above the snowy surface, opening its "mouth" to unload its…contents. White mists puffed out and ominously stopped above the ground. The mists started forming into five boughs, and suddenly, colors came to the vapors, actually forming flesh and blood humans in dim colored clothing. They each had their faces concealed by something.

One of them, wearing a red robe padded with numerous black Chinese symbols and the hood over his head, walked over to the phantom and said, "Thanks, Boofus. We'll call you when we need you."

The giant ghost actually spoke back in a deep, animated voice, "No problem. I'm gonna go scare Bowser." It flew off in the distance.

The red cloaked man turned to the rest of the group and said, "Well this place doesn't look like I remembered it. I remember more…you know, life."

"That's because we're in Antarctica, you idiot," said a muffled, female voice. She was wearing a tight, black ninja suit of some sort with a silver mask. Her black pony tail waved in the breeze.

"You mean my army didn't already destroy this hell-hole?" asked the red cloak.

A shorter man in a half-white, half-black lab coat (his left, upper half was white; his right, upper half was black; his bottom half was vice-versa of the aforementioned color combinations) spoke in what sounded like an old scientist's monotone from under a dark welding visor, "No, that's because there's nothing to destroy." His hair, which was also black on one side and white on the other, was long and wild, and it collected snow as it fluttered in the wind.

The largest outsider, who stood at around six-foot six, had on a faded grey coat with the sleeves ripped off to reveal muscular, brown fur. He knelt down on the snow and picked a clump of white ice. It fell in between his large, clawed fingers. He stood back up and took off his hood to reveal a wolf-like face, with a doggie-nose, some sharp teeth protruding out of his mouth, and brown fur spread over his face. His foot-long long dreadlocks wavered in the blizzard's breeze with snow collecting on it.

The wolf-man turned to the second largest of the group, who stood at around six feet. The other member wore a predominantly black cloak with purple lining the edges. Although not as muscular as the wolf-man, his cloak tightly hugged his upper body. His lower half of the cloak umbrella'ed out in a sinister way. The cloak was opened on the top, came to a close in the middle, and opened again on the breezy bottom. The wolf-man said with piercing eyes, "Where do we strike first, boss?"

"This is our goal, remember Biff," reminded the dark adversary, "we must take our time here on Earth. We will make this as _painful_ for them as possible." He removed his hood to reveal a white face under black aviator sunglasses. He had shoulder length black hair that was slicked back in a mobster-esque fashion. "We must disperse—no doubt Orphco will detect us soon."

The man in the red cloak removed his hood as well. His face revealed many Chinese features, including his slanted eyes and high cheekbones. He had short, porcupine-like hair that was jet-black. Snow began to collect on the tips of his spikes as he said, "I shall retake my true throne as the emperor of China, and no one will stand in my way…if that's okay with you, Master Draksin."

He was referring to their boss, the one in the black and purple jacket, otherwise known as Draksin. He rolled his eyes behind his round lenses and said, "Yes, do what you please. But I will be the one to kill Jeycko. Don't any of you forget that."

"Yes sir," saluted the woman in the black suit. There was a hint of a British accent in her voice. "I'm going to the Mediterranean area. Instead of the usual senseless violence, I'm going to start a competition amongst these earthlings that endorses senseless violence." After saying that, she levitated up in the air and flew off at an amazing speed without revealing her name or face.

The scientist man in the black and white trench coat said from under his hood, "I will return to my laboratory in the Russia. There, I shall finally finish my war machines…" He took out a hand sized object from inside his jacket and pressed a button on it. His whole body dematerialized and teleported somewhere, also not bothering to give out his identity.

The Chinese man also decided to depart. "Well, it's time for me to fly." In a single convulsive movement, he and his red cloak turned into a twelve foot red dragon with a golden underbelly. He used his expansive wings to gain a little altitude above Draksin and the wolf man named Biff. After saying, "Later, haters!" he flew of, disappearing in the dark blizzard.

Draksin turned to Biff, who had his back to him, and said, "Make sure you leave every building overturned. Do whatever you can to get the Precursors' attention. I want them to try and stop us, those cowards."

"Yes, almighty master," the wolf-man said. As he turned to Draksin, his dreads blew in the cold wind like angry snakes. He said quietly, "Soon, we will exact vengeance on the man who locked us in that black pit of a prison for centuries. Soon, we will flip this entire planet sideways and demolish everyone and everything that gets in our way."

"Well said. You and I shall meet again in a few weeks to bring about this world's proper destruction. Until then, raise hell."

Both evil schemers levitated up in the air and flew off in separate directions.

_They have arrived..._


	12. Who Ya Gonna Call?

Chapter 12: Who Ya Gonna Call? (Insert Cliché Here)

Back at the Bandicoot home, Link slept on top of the guestroom bed, peaceful dreaming. In that dream, he stood in the woods, by a glistening stream of ice cold water. He bent over and stuck his head in the river, refreshing himself, his blonde hair waving underwater. He rose, and the water dripped down on his shirtless torso and green long pants. He opened his blue eyes to see Ilia standing in the knee-high water. She had on her usual wear, with her pant legs rolled up a little to avoid getting soaked. While he knelt by the bank, he watched her slowly spin around gracefully, creating soft ripples in the water. Then, she stopped and looked at him deeply with her green eyes, inviting him in the water.

Not bothering to roll up his pant legs, he treaded into the water and held Ilia closely, kissing her softly.

Link jolted up from the bed he had been placed on. "So vivid," he whispered to himself. Something was wrong. This wasn't his home in Ordon Village; it was an empty room, with just a single bed and a window. He set his boots down on the hardwood floor, glancing around at the small room. He removed some of his equipment to relieve some stress; he took off his weapons, boots, hand armors, and green cap. Link then proceeded out the door on his left.

Meanwhile, while Link was dreaming in the guestroom, Coco got up early from a painful night's sleep and made herself eggs. As she stood with a crooked posture over the stove, she heard Crash walk out of her room, singing, "Good morning, world! Hear me roar!" He looked over at Coco's distraught body language; the chaotic hair, the hunched back, the bathrobe lazily throne over her nightwear…"…Ah, sweet, you made eggs!"

As he ran over to the stove to get some eggs, Coco quickly spun around and swatted his hand away with her own. "No! These are for me! No!"

"If you're going to treat me like a dog, then put some in a bowl wrapped in cheese, please," Crash said blowing his hand. "C'mon I'm going to need some strength to keep this giant hair dryer from crushin' my neck in through my shoulders!"

"You're gonna have to make it yourself, pal." She turned back around to tend to the eggs.

"Coco, let me have some, NOW!"

"No."

"Now, or I will pinch you!" Crash raised his hand to the blonde's shoulder.

"Oh, that's mature."

Crash squeezed her shoulder hard and she hollered in pain. She spun around to pinch him back in the nose. He grabbed his nose, eyes watering from the sharp pain. Crash then proceeded to pinch her right arm.

"You pinch like a girl," Coco taunted, not even phased. She pinched his left nipple this time.

"AAAAHHH!" Crashed screamed, now on the floor. "Play fair!"

"Never!" Coco picked him up by his leg and threw him into the back of the couch. "How bout them manzanas?"

Crash limped back into the kitchen and made one last try to steal the eggs, but his arm was caught by Coco's quick hand. Under her ninja grip, he imitated a bad martial arts movie, "I know one way that I always use defeat you, Sensei!" He brought his hand under her arm and tickled her till she dropped her guard.

"Crash, quit it!" she said in between laughs.

"Never, until I get my sensei-eggs."

"That doesn't make sense!" she laughed. "Crash, stop or I'll puke on purpose!"

"Nah-ah!" He reached his hand past his sister, trying to get the pan while still tickling her.

"I said STOP!" She grabbed the pan before he could and slammed it across his face.

That simple act of violence made him to fall to the ground, due to the weight of the Vocabulizer pulling him down. He landed flat on his back, holding his nose, writhing in pain. "What the heck, COCO?!"

"I told you to stop," she said plainly.

"That really hurts like crazy!" He took his hands off his nose to look at them. "Gah—you made me bleed!"

"You should've known I was angry."

"That pan was hot, too…" The downed bandicoot staggered up and limped to the bathroom. "Gotta remember to stop fighting you…cheat too darn much…" He hit the top of the bathroom door with the giant machine on his head and fell backwards, unconscious.

The door to the first downstairs guestroom swung open, and a confused Link slowly walked out, grasping the wall for leverage. He lazily looked over at the unconscious bandicoot lying down by the bathroom, and then to the one standing by the stove. There were eggs scattered about kitchen floor. Since Link somehow didn't hear the previous clamor they had caused, he just stared with a confused expression.

"Um," staggered Coco, "morning. Are you hungry?"

Link didn't answer; he just kept his same bewildered look as he slowly trudged over to the kitchen table and sat in it. He glanced around the tree home, wondering where in the world he was. Then he glanced back at the standing organism with the animal-like qualities.

"Do you speak…at all?" Coco asked.

No answer.

"Um, okay…gonna go over here now."

He continued to blankly stare at her, not even blinking, as she awkwardly turned her back on him. She asked herself,"What's wrong with this pointy-eared fool?"

Finally, Link spoke to Coco in a _slight_ British accent, "Who brought me here?"

This made Coco jump, because she just insulted him out loud. She spun around to face him and shrieked, "YOU CAN SPEAK? I thought you were a mute!"

Link said in a very serious tone, "Answer me."

"Uh…I don't know…it was…"

"It was WHO?" Link stood up.

"Geeze, calm down! It was one of those Twilight guys!"

"Tell me," Link said fiercely, "where can I find them?"

"I honestly have no idea," Coco answered sincerely. "I think you're stuck here with us, pal."

"No…I must return to Hyrule."

"Hey, maybe you can complain to them whenever they come back. Can't really do anything about it now."

Defeated, Link quietly sat back down at the table.

From the upstairs hall, Bentley emerged from his room and propelled himself downstairs with the rocket thrusters. He said, "Morning, everybody."

"Hey Bentley. Were you able to contact someone about your equipment?"

"Yes I was, Miss Bandicoot. I did it earlier this morning and a package should arrive this afternoon via an RC plane."

Coco thought to herself and said, "Miss Bandicoot, eh? I like you three guys. So polite!"

Bentley's glasses fogged. "Well, it is in our nature to treat women with respect and courtesy."

"Try teaching my brothers that."

Sly and Murray emerged from their guestrooms, almost at the same time, yawning and stretching. Murray commented while walking down the stairs, "Ah, man, those are some comfy beds you got here, Miss Bandicoot!"

"Thanks, Murray!" Coco thanked with a bright smile.

"Yep," added Sly, "I slept like a baby."

Looking off to the side, she said, "I slept on the couch."

"Really?" asked Bentley. "You could have asked one of us to sleep out here!"

"No way, you guys are the guests!"

Sly said, "No woman in the same house as us sleeps on the couch. You know…as long as she isn't trying to kill us."

Coco felt very flattered. "Oh, you guys are the best. You treat me much better than Crash, Crunch, and Aku do. Although they do most of the cooking, cleaning, and work…"

Later, when everyone had woken up, been fed, and gotten dressed, Coco had sat down on the couch, dialing a phone number. On the table in front of her was a thick phone book opened up to the home service section. Aku Aku floated over to the young bandicootess and asked, "Who are you calling?"

She answered, "Someone who knows how to string a pipeline in a tree house."

Crunch overheard her response from behind the sofa and said, "Won't that cost alotta money? To get pipes in the whole house?"

"We don't exactly have a choice; eighteen people are going to be living here." Finally, someone on the other end of the phone line answered, and she said, "Yes, I need a some plumbers who can quickly get water running throughout an entire house…Yeah I need it done fast…I don't really care about the price. As long as it gets done, I'll be…you're sending him over today? Great!" She hung up.

"So I guess this means we can stop brushing our teeth with saltwater," Crunch said.

"But how do you suppose we pay the plumber guy?" asked the witch doctor.

"I don't really know," Coco said. "Maybe we can sell 'em one of our bikes if he's into that stuff."

For obvious reasons, Crunch completely objected to that idea. "No WAY! Those wheels are like family. Never sell family!"

"Coco's right," Aku agreed. "We may have to."

Crunch sighed. He came up with an alternate solution: "How 'bout me and Crash find another legal way to get money?"

"Do what you can, Crunch."

From the kitchen table, Sly noticed something outside through the window. "Hey, I think I see someone outside." He stood up and walked over to the front door's peephole. "It's some of those guys from last night."

Outside of the Bandicoot home, Eurathaccus, Ratchet, and Clank stood in the grassy area in front of the mighty tree. Clank said aloud, "So this is the Wumpa Island. It's very sunny." He looked behind him to find a giant, downed machine. He looked off in the distance to find another machine, except it was in the shape of cranium. "A little messy, though."

"Maybe this island is a landfill or something," Ratchet suggested.

"Ten-HUT!" the general commanded. The duo lined up and straightened themselves. "At ease…well it's time for me leave. Good luck, ladies." One flash and the general was gone.

"Let's check to see if anyone lives in that house over there," said Ratchet, pointing to the Bandicoot home.

They took two steps and were suddenly knocked back by another intense flash of light. This time, four beings appeared in the tree home's front lawn. It was Jak, Daxter, Keira, and Gladdus (who floated above the grass).

Daxter said, "Thanks for the lift, Gladdus, sweetheart. Now it's Hero-Time."

"Whatever, Orange-Lightning. Don't forget say all your famous one-liners. See-ya." She left them while they stood there. The trio was still oblivious to the robot and Lombax they just knocked over.

"Doesn't this place remind you of Sandover Village?" Keira asked.

"Yeah," answered Daxter from Jak's shoulder. "And right now, Old Grampa Greens would be forcing me to sweep every inch of the huge house over there."

"Maybe that's where those bandicoot-guys live," suggested Jak.

From behind them on the ground, Ratchet said loudly, "Yeah, we were on our way there too…" He stood and brushed dirt off his suit.

"Hey, you guys made it!" said Daxter.

After the introductions, Sly and Crash emerged from the front door, staring at the odd group of five. They recognized each other instantly, and invited themselves in.

Coco stood up from the couch next to Crunch, noticing their visitors. She greeted them, "Hey, everyone. Welcome to our home."

"It's very cozy," Keira complimented.

"Thanks. Now, I'd introduce myself, but I don't think this is everyone, is it?"

Crash waddled over next to Murray at the kitchen table and said, "Yeah, aren't there some human kids wearing funny clothes?"

"And a duck and a dog-guy?" added Murray.

Daxter jumped down from Jak's shoulder and said, "Apparently, they're a little late to the party. And may I ask…what the HECK is that giant metal lamp on the orange guy's head?"

Coco was about to answer until Crash completely cut her off. He called everyone's attention, "I can answer that! You see, this is a new invention called the Vacuole-izer. It connects to my brain and allows me to speak. Last night, I didn't have this thing, so that's why I spoke gabble-gabble."

"That's right," began Clank, standing next to Ratchet, "I do recall you speaking in a language I'm not familiar with. Who invented that device?"

"I did," Coco said, this time cutting Crash off. "And it's called the Vocabulizer."

"Ingenious—"

"Okay, before you guys start a nerd-war, I think I saw something outside," interjected Ratchet.

* * *

Outside, somewhere, four beings stood, a little dazed. Jeycko said very quickly, "I'll be back with Donald and Goofy. Hopefully they won't take as long as you guys did…"

After he teleported, Riku said, "Man, he acts like we took all morning."

"I'm back!" Jeycko said with another dazing flash of light.

If that wasn't enough to throw the unsuspecting teens off guard, it was the fact that Jeycko was now united with the duck mage and dog knight. Sora stuttered, "Wha—how—when?"

"We get things done, Sora," Donald answered, smirking.

"These boys don't mess around," Jeycko added. "Anyway, shouldn't be too obvious what to do next, eh? See ya…"

Jeycko teleported, leaving the group of five behind. "Check out the red sky," Kairi said, gazing up at the crimson atmosphere.

"This is like one of them scary island getaway joints, huh?" commented Goofy.

"Maybe we've been left to die," thought Riku. "Maybe this is an island where newly weds go, but get killed along the way by two mysterious psychos named Bob and Carla."

"You just made those names up, didn't you?" Sora asked.

"Quit messing around. I think someone lives in that strange house over there." Donald said.

Sora and co. walked over to the wooden door and knocked loudly. Sora said, "Don't think anyone's—"

Suddenly, the door swung open to reveal a red creature in blue pants roaring at the top of its lungs at the guests. That little prank gave them each heart attacks; all five of them screamed and took a step back. The creature, surprisingly, wasn't Crunch…

"What is that thing?" Kairi asked shakily.

"Uh…um…" Goofy stuttered, "I th-think it's one of th-them f-f-fellers we saw last night."

The red furred creature was _not _Crash either. He was slightly taller than the orange hero, had pointy ears, long and sharp teeth, longs arms, filthy claws, and his feet protruded from the ends of his shoes. He growled viciously at them.

Sora braved up and slowly walked in front of the red beast. Shaking all over, he said, "Um, hi?"

The beast let out a small roar.

"Yeah—uh we were at the hero meeting with, er, you last night and…"

"Sora?" Riku said from behind, "I highly doubt this guy is a hero."

By now, the monster was dangling the brown haired Keyblader upside down by his ankle. "GOOD WORK, DETECTIVE!" Sora hollered, blood rushing to his skull. He summoned his Keyblade and slashed sideways at the angry beast's abdomen. He dropped Sora, roaring and clutching his stomach in pain.

Sora landed on his hands and flipped upright. "Let's get the heck outta hear!" he shouted, running with Kairi, Riku, Goofy, and Donald.

"This is definitely the wrong island!" Donald yelled as the creature regained its bearings.

* * *

Back on WUMPA Island, the group of intergalactic hero's (minus Sora and co.) sat in the living room, awaiting the stragglers' arrival. Sly, Coco, and Bentley sat on the couch with Clank wedged in between the bandicootess and turtle. Murray and Keira sat on the armchairs on either side of the couch; Jak had pulled up a chair next to Keira while Daxter rested on the top edge of her armchair. Link pulled up a chair in between Murray's armchair and the couch; Ratchet had planted himself on the arm of Murray's chair. Being good hosts, Crash and Crunch decided to stand behind the couch.

"I don't think they're coming anytime soon, Miss Bandicoot," Bentley said, after a few hours of waiting.

"Their loss," Jak noted.

Coco agreed, "Yeah, well I guess—" She was interrupted by the doorbell. "Oh, that's probably them."

She got up from the couch and strode to the front door. Although expecting to find three teenaged humans, a duck, and a dog, she actually only saw a single man. This man was short, wearing a gray uniform and blue pants, a gray hat with the name "Mario" stitched across the front, and brown boots, the same color as his hair. He had a slightly irritated and glazed look in his blue eyes, along with a thick, brown mustache and a five o'clock shadow plastered on the lower half of his face. In a very slurred Brooklyn accent, the man in uniform said, "I'm here for the big plumbin' job."

* * *

_Thank you Dark Chewy: I try hard to portray these characters as well as I can. And I'm just as surprised as you are, but I don't complain._

_And thanks to all of those who have put me in their favorites and alerts. You're not all complete jerks. Any-who..._

_Yes, that vicious beast was Evil Crash of the Tenth Dimension trying to kill Sora and his friends. Have they been set up? Or is Jeycko an idiot? Will they escape the vile clutches of Evil Crash? All that and more in the next chapter of Twilight's Precursors. Now king me._

_I know I repeatedly told you that I wouldn't include Mario. I lied. Deal with it._


	13. District 10

Chapter 13: District 9…Um 10

"NOW I'm really starting to not trust these Precursor guys!" yelled Riku as he ran through the dark forests of N. Sanity Island's Tenth Dimension.

Following closely behind him, Sora said, "I think we lost him!"

The five stopped temporarily, catching their breath. They had gotten themselves lost in the forest, not remembering which way they came in. It was starting to get pitch-black all around them; they could barely see the bushes that surrounded them. Some of them shook faintly, threatening to hurl out a killer at any moment.

Sora and Riku summoned their Keyblades as they backed into each other with Kairi . It was getting very, very dark…

"Hey, where did Donald and Goofy go?" Sora asked, worried.

"Oh, we're over here," answered Goofy's voice through the dark. "We got scared, so we had to take a pee-break."

"You peed on my tree, didn't you?" said Donald's voice.

"Sorry, it was dark and…"

"Can you two discuss this later," Sora suggested, "because there's a vicious, killer whatever-that-thing-is after us!"

"Riku," Kairi whispered, "gimme that Keyblade!"

"Fine," the silver head replied. In his left hand, he flashed the flower-like Keyblade and handed it over to Kairi. "Don't lose it, cut yourself, or try any cool tricks."

"I know, I know—"

Goofy screamed and the sound of bone against metal clanged throughout the area. The dog man landed on his back a foot away from Sora, with Evil Crash pounced over him, its teeth scraping Goofy's shield. Goofy defended himself the best he could, trying to push the attacker off with the shield. "Help!" he screamed.

"Goofy—!" Sora yelled, and disconnected himself from Riku and Kairi. He ran over and side-slashed the beast off of the knight. Donald followed up with a thunder spell directly on its red back, singing the fur. Surprisingly, it straightened back up, almost unfazed. This time it went for the duck; it dashed over to Donald, captured him under its arm, and took in another direction.

"That thing took Donald, after him!" Sora shouted and ran with Ultima Weapon in hand.

"Let's go!" said Riku.

"I don't have to fight THAT thing, do I?" Kairi asked as she ran with the others.

Evil Crash ran like a raptor through the forest, clutching Donald. He exited the bush and began running up a dirt path. Sora, Goofy, Riku, and Kairi followed close behind. Up the path, Evil Crash jumped over a pile of leaves and twigs, for obvious reasons. Sora caught on to this and jumped over as well, but, unfortunately, Goofy did not. He stumbled right onto the debris and fell through the trap; the leaves and twigs caved in over Goofy's head. He screamed "YA-HOO-HOO-HOO!" as he fell in. Riku and Kairi managed to hop to over the hole, and Riku decided to rescue the dog knight. The boy peered over the hole to find Goofy's arms and legs spread out to keep him from slipping into the deadly spikes that lay at the bottom. "Help me, Riku!"

"Oh, boy," Riku sighed.

Kairi, on the other hand, sped up to Sora to back him up. Evil Crash looked back at the two, thinking he could lose them. He came to a part where a wide river cut the land; the only way to get across was to jump on the backs of alligators. Donald Duck said, "Oh, no you don't! You're gonna kill the both of us!"

The evil bandicoot ignored the duck and hop-scotched over the annoyed gators to the other side. Sora and Kairi soon caught up to the riverside. Panting, Sora said, "You up for a game of Leap-Croc?"

"No way," she said, panting as well. "But I'm not giving up till you do!"

"Then try to keep up!" Sora said, skipping onto the alligators' backs. He stopped momentarily on the second one and said, "And don't get eaten!"

"Thanks, your wisdom teaches me," Kairi said sarcastically. "Okay, Kairi, just don't look down at their scaly backs. Just pretend they're dead bodies floating in the river…" With that self-talk, she began to quickly hop with both feet across the alligator pond, Keyblade still in hand. Sora had already crossed to the other side, and called to her, "You're almost there, Kairi!"

The last alligator decided to get smart with her. With a devilish grin, it waited for the redhead to jump on his back silently. Once she did, it bobbed its back upwards and propelled her in the air, causing her to yelp loudly from the sudden leap.

"I gotcha!" Sora volunteered, and softened her landing with his arms. "C'mon, we gotta rescue Donald!"

Kairi stood up and glared at the alligator prankster. "Stupid lizards!" She picked up a rock and threw it at its nose, earning glares from every gator in the pond. They began crawling towards Sora and Kairi's position. "Uh-oh…"

"Good job!" Sora said sarcastically as they ran after Evil Crash and away from the gator convoy.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Twilight Realm's Heavens…

"What are you talking about? That was Wumpa Island," Jeycko said, sounding a bit doubtful.

"No," answered young Gladdus, "That was a completely different place. Wumpa Island doesn't have red skies or dark forests."

"Are you sure? There was a house with a mailbox that said 'Crash' on it and everything!"

"Nope, Wumpa Island has bright blue skies and a giant tree house. And a bunch of metal garbage everywhere."

Jeycko started panicking. "Oh my Triforce…Then where the heck did I take them?"

"I'm pretty sure that was the Tenth Dimension of N. Sanity Island. And that means that was Evil Crash's house." Gladdus suddenly straightened up, now realizing that Sora, Kairi, Riku, Donald, and Goofy were in mortal danger.

Jeycko quickly held his hand up to her mouth, urgently shushing the young precursor. "Okay I'm gonna go see if they're still alive, and, whatever you do, don't tell Orphco!"

She moved his hand and whispered, "What if they're dead?"

"Then I'll say…I DON'T KNOW! I gotta go!" After that, Jeycko teleported from their realm to the Tenth Dimension.

* * *

"Oh, man! This guy doesn't quit!" Sora complained, exasperated.

"Speak of the devil—he's stopping, Sora!" Kairi said from behind him.

Evil Crash slowed down to a halt, and turned around to them, letting go of Donald. Happy to be free, he ran away from his captor and over to Sora and Kairi. Sora summoned his Ultima Weapon, ready to fight, as Kairi held her Keyblade. Donald stood next to them, brandishing his staff. Although outnumbered, Evil Crash was far from giving up; he got down on all fours, like a lion, and bellowed. He pounced over to the trio and swept his leg under each of them, causing them to trip backwards, but only Kairi and Donald hit the ground on their own leisure; the angry beast jumped and slammed his feet into Sora's abdomen while he was still in the air. Sora hit the ground hard, with Evil Crash's feet still on his midsection. He lowered himself to a crouch on the boy's body. Ignoring the boy's screams of pain, he raised his clawed hands and attempted to grab his throat. Kairi and Donald quickly rose up and, in a batter-esque pose, swung with their weapons at the bandicoot beast on either side. The monster caught the Keyblade and staff just in time to yank them both behind him. Evil Crash now made an attempt to bite into Sora's throat, but the boy threw his Keyblade over his head to intercept the incoming fangs. On the ground behind the two strugglers, Donald stood and readied a Blizzara spell, but stopped because he would freeze Sora, too. During his stalling, Kairi ran up on the bandicoot from behind and kicked him, causing it lunge forward off of Sora.

"Thanks," said Sora. "This guy means business!"

"Let's get him!" Kairi shouted.

Crash of Evilness-ness whipped around from falling and dashed over to the duo. Sora made to slash the bandicoot's head off, but he ducked and knocked him over to the side. Instead of putting the kill on Sora, he barred his claws and picked Kairi up by her shirt and threw her towards a tree. Luckily, Donald used a Stopraga spell on Kairi before she hit the tree. She just floated in the air in the same tossed position she had been thrown in. The duck lowered her to the ground so she wouldn't hit the tree when the spell wore of.

Meanwhile, Sora had gotten up and slashed across the bandicoot's yellow chest, causing him to fall backwards. He didn't get back up.

"I think we beat 'em!" Sora called. He turned around to see Donald standing next to a floating Kairi with her arms, legs, and hair thrown in front of her and a screamy look on her face. She had her eyes closed. Sora walked over to them and laughed. "Next time I'll use this whenever she calls me a lazy bum."

Donald smirked and said, "That probably ain't the only reason you'll use it for."

Red faced, he said, "Shut-up!"

Suddenly, a figure in black flew in from the sky and to their position. "Hey, guys! Thank the goddesses you're alive!"

"Jeycko?" said a perplexed Sora. Judging by the tone of his voice, Sora was obviously not happy to see the precursor. "Why the heck did you take us to this place?"

"If this is your idea of a test, then you're sick!" Donald yelled at him.

Once again, Jeycko brought his hands up in a defensive position. "Okay, okay…I can see why you'd be a little moody after being chased by a killer bandicoot, but the good news is Goofy and Riku are okay. I told them to wait up while I find you guys."

Kairi dropped out of her Stopraga spell and landed with a thud on the dirt ground. She said, "You tricked us!"

"No, no, no! I actually…" He began to chuckle, "brought you guys to the wrong island." He started laughing hysterically. "Isn't that hilarious!"

Sora, Donald, and Kairi starred daggers at Jeycko.

"Um, not so funny I guess. C'mon, Riku and Goofy are waiting. Then I'll take you guys to the REAL Wumpa Island!"

"And we're supposed to trust you?" Sora asked angrily.

"You wanna stay on this spitty Isle?" Jeycko did have a point there.

"No," all three of them said.

"Good, then. Ugh, P.U.! You guys are sweaty and disgusting. Where's a fire hydrant when you need one?"

"Just do it, already!" commanded Donald. In the end, they decided to put their trust in Jeycko once more, and they teleported to a different part of the island.

Meanwhile, Goofy and Riku sat next to the hole, awaiting the Precursor's arrival. In an annoyed voice, Riku said, "I don't believe that guy! He takes us to some psychotic wolf's island that tries to kill us, leaves us here for hours, and all he has to say is, 'Sorry, thanks for staying alive.'"

"Well," began Goofy, trying to shed some light on the situation, "at least he rescued us from the spikes."

"Oh, yeah. Sorry I fell in after you, nearly killing the both of us."

"A-hi-yuck! That's okay, you did your best."

"Sure hope Sora, Kairi, and Donald are okay," Riku pondered, but not for long. Jeycko returned right in front of them, accompanied with the other three members. "Hey! You guys are alright. Did you beat that red thing?"

"Yeah," said Sora, "but I sure hope I didn't kill it, though. He does have a house and stuff."

"He'll be fine. He was breathing," Donald assured.

"Well, on that note," Kairi said, "can we please get out of this horrible place?"

"Agreed," said Jeycko. They gathered around him and teleported out of the Tenth Dimension to Wumpa Island…finally.

* * *

_Haven't seen you in a while, Roxas._

Roxas: Yeah, yeah, just let me get to the new bio.

Evil Crash

**Age:** ?  
**Gender:** Male  
**Species:** Bandicoot

**Bio:** Evil Crash is one of the many failed experiments of Dr. Neo Cortex. This was one of his worse experiments, seeing as how that's why he was transported to the Tenth Dimension. That happens to a lot of his failed experiments. When he was created, he exhibited very violent behavior and could not be controlled efficiently by Cortex or his men. There are rumors of him having a sister, but that has not yet been justified. Evil Crash is normally found shirtless and wearing tattered shoes and purple pants. His fur is currently red, and he has sharp fangs and claws. Evil Crash was last seen in _Crash Twinsanity__, 2004, _and he was thought to be first seen by Coco while she was jet skiing, but that was actually Fake Crash dancing, not Evil Crash. So in ya face!


	14. No Sleep Till Buru

Chapter 14: No Sleep Till Buru

Back at the Bandicoot home, during the early afternoon, the whole team (minus Sora, Riku, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy) sat impatiently in the wide living room. Coco had gotten up earlier to answer the doorbell for the plumber who had arrived to install the water pipes so they could live with running water. Are we caught up, yet? Good.

The short and stocky man at the front door wrinkled his mustache and said gruffly in a slurred Brooklyn accent, "I'm here for the big plumbin' job. Is this da Bandicoot home?"

"Yeah," answered Coco, "thanks for coming…Mario." She looked at the nametag on his hat.

Holding onto a clipboard, the plumber walked in the house after Coco. He peered over to his right where the living room was. He stared at all of the strange characters staring back at him. He turned back to Coco and asked, "That your family?"

"Um, no. We're having a stranger get-together. Everyone on Wumpa Island does it!"

"Anyway, let's tawk papers." Mario and Coco sat down at the kitchen table. Crash and Crunch joined them.

"So what do ya need to know first?" asked Coco.

"Basic junk, like numba of rooms, batrooms, prices on those…"

Crash interrupted the man and laughed, saying, "You talk funny!"

Crunch gasped and said, "Faux pas, fool!"

"I'm sorry," Coco interjected. "My brother's an idiot."

Mario wrinkled his nose with a ticked off glare at the orange bandicoot. "Imbecile. Anyway, I went and got the layout of your house, and the fastest and most efficient way of gettin' this thing done is Plan A." He flipped a few papers on his clipboard and held it up to show the three. It was a small overhead schematic of their first floor, detailing measurements, rooms, appliance spaces, pipeline tricks, etc. "Now, dis is the most efficient way, but also the most expensive. It'll cost ya eight thousand seven hundred fifty do'ah'las."

Crash began laughing again and shrieked, "DO'AH'LAS? What the HECK does that mean? My gosh, it's like your from a completely different planet. Is that just an accent or is there an actual language you guys got goin' on over there? Comical…"

"To-awk about my accent one mo-aw time, and I'll rip off both those bat ears!" the plumber shouted angrily, staring blades at Crash. "And what the heck is that THING on your head?"

"It's a device that allows me to speak. Maybe we can get you one!"

"_Anyway…_I should be able to finish this up before nightfall."

Coco asked, "Don't you have any partners or co-workers to help you?"

"Please, lady. I'm the best of the best. I once fixed a backed-up and frequently exploding toilet in under two minutes. Solo. The mess was a different story…"

"Sounds exciting," Coco blankly commented.

"So, I'm gonna need the whole house for the rest of the day, and I'll get outta ya hair in no time…Why's the orange rat staring at me?"

Crash was indeed fixated on the short man, as if trying to recognize him from somewhere. "Have we met before?"

"Don't think so, pal," Mario answered with a raised eyebrow.

Crash snapped his fingers and said, "Did you go to a Rascal Flats concert a year ago? Oh no wait, that was N. Brio…" Crash soon became perpetually frozen in his own thoughts.

"Ignore him, please," Coco said, bringing the plumber's attention back to business. "I'm going to get everyone outside, and just ask Crash, Crunch, or m…Murray if you need any help, okay?"

"Whateva you say, lady." Mario stood up from the table and headed out the front door to his truck.

Coco pumped her fist and said, "Alright! Sinks and faucets, here we come."

"Technically, we already got those, and, if anything, they're coming to US," speculated Crunch.

"Whatever; I can't wait to tell Aku Aku that this is finally happening."

"But he'll flip circles when he hears about the price," Crunch said.

Over in the living room, the group of heroes had gotten bored of waiting and decided to play…

"Duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck…" said Daxter as he ran around the room, patting Keira, Jak, Sly, Clank, Bentley, Link, Murray, and Ratchet on their heads. Of course, the short ottsel had to jump up to complete the tasks, causing him to become exasperated by the time he'd patted Jak on the head for the third time. He panted, "Gimme a minute…to catch my breath…oh boy…"

"C'mon! Say goose already!" shouted Ratchet from across the room.

"This is so stupid," Link said to himself.

The bandicoots returned to the living room. Coco announced to everyone, "Okay everybody, we all have to go outside while the plumber guy installs water pipes in the house. Hopefully, he'll get done soon, so we can live under normal conditions. Any questions—nope?"

"Now get outta my house," Crash said flatly.

They all did as they were told, walking out the door single-file. All twelve of them grouped under the bright blue sky, not doing anything. "Well this stinks," commented Ratchet. "Something exciting better happen in the next three seconds…"

Suddenly, three and a half seconds later, Jeycko and Sora and co. appeared a few feet in front of the tree house. The teens, duck, and dog had fearful looks on their faces; they also looked as if they had just run a mile, with dirt patches scattered all over their bodies and clothing.

"Whoa…" said a surprised Jak. "You guys look…awful."

"What the heck happened?" asked Sly.

"Long…" Sora slowly began.

"…story!" Donald angrily finished.

"My bad, dudes," the Precursor apologized. "I took 'em to the wrong place on accident."

"Where did you take them, a meat grinder?" asked Daxter.

"No…I took them to the tenth dimension—ON ACCIDENT!" Jeycko was suddenly being threatened Riku's fists. "Good luck guys, again." He vanished with an anxious expression.

"I'd call that a morning exercise, eh guys?" Goofy said, chuckling with a twitching eye.

Coco suddenly thought of something. "Seeing you guys like this reminds me of something…I'm not too sure how long the plumber's going to take, but for the time being, we can't use the bathrooms in the house until he's done. Do you all see the pond with the huge waterfall over behind the house? You all can use that for washing and bathing. Now, there is a SECOND pond along a pathway BEHIND the FIRST pond. We will use that for taking care of bathroom businesses. And I can't stress this enough—do NOT get these two confused! It won't be pretty. The plumber says he's gonna be done by nighttime, so hopefully we won't have to worry about that for long."

"Well, what do we do while we wait?" asked Ratchet.

"We can start by introducing ourselves," Coco suggested. "My name's Coco Bandicoot, and this is my older brother Crash Bandicoot. The large red guy is our best friend who's apart of the family, Crunch. We have a guardian witch doctor who watches over us named Aku Aku. He should be back soon."

It was the Cooper gang's turn. They stood together next to the downed Doominator. "I'm Bentley the turtle. I'm usually the schemer in our gig we call the Cooper gang."

"My name's Murray, and I'm the muscle of the gang," stated the hippopotamus.

"And I'm Sly Cooper. Hence the name of the gang," said Sly.

Ratchet spoke up, "Well, ahem, I'm Ratchet. I'm a Lombax. Not many of us around, but I am one. And this is the hot bot with the angry thought, Clank."

"That was very nice, Ratchet," said an unimpressed Clank.

"I'm Sora!" said the boy enthusiastically.

"Donald!" said the duck in the same manner.

"Goofy!" the dog said as well.

The three proceeded to look at Riku and Kairi with impatience. Sora said, "Come on, guys. You gotta get with the program."

"Practice makes perfect!" Goofy noted.

"Um…okay, my name is Riku, I guess," said the silver haired teen.

"That was terrible," criticized Donald. "Make us proud, Kairi."

"My name's, uh, Kairi," said the girl uneasily.

"C-minus."

Riku said, "That's not fair, you three have had more practice!"

Daxter counted down on an imaginary watch, "Three, two, one; alright, you guys' introductions are done. It is now time for Daxter's, Jak's, Keira's, and Daxter's intros! My name is…legendary. I am the very epitome of awesomeness, a worldwide champion against threats of evil. I am…"

"He's Daxter," Jak interjected. "This is Keira. And I'm Jak. J-A-K-."

"Alright, looks like we got one guy left," said Crash. "Who are you, blonde-boy?"

Link stood there with his arms crossed, looking at the ground. He slowly looked up at all of the strange characters.

Jumping on his favorite spot, Daxter whispered loudly in Jak's long ear, "Maybe this guy's a mute, like you used to be."

"No I'm not a mute. Just homesick. My name is Link. Hello, everyone."

"Hi, Link!" greeted everyone, excluding Jak, Daxter, and Riku.

Daxter whispered loudly again, "I think we've been tricked into being placed in Alcoholics Anonymous, Jak."

Mario emerged from the inside of his truck, clutching toolboxes, a jackhammer, and a shovel. He said, "Nope, they stopped having meetin's outside a long time ago," as he walked into the Bandicoot home.

"He's great, isn't he?" said Crash half sincerely, half sarcastically.

Ratchet spoke to no one in particular, "Well, that was fun while it lasted. What else is there to do?"

"I say we catch a few rays," said Jak with a smile.

Daxter said, "Yeah, our buddy-boy could use some color."

Crash picked up a rock and chucked it at the roof of his house, knocking down a red, leather ball. He picked it up and said, "How 'bout some kickball?"

Everyone thought for a minute. Coco said, "Sure, I could go for a game."

"I guess this'll kill some time," said Sly Cooper. "Who's first captain?"

Jak had volunteered to be the first captain, followed by Daxter as the second. Before they began picking teammates, Sora had announced for his fellow worn out friends that they were horribly exhausted and were going to rest in some shade. Crash and Crunch did their best to explain the rules of the game to Link, who had begun to get the picture. (He remembered a game similar to this that he played back in Ordon with the village children.) As soon as everyone who wanted to play lined up, Jak and Daxter began picking…

* * *

A grassy village in a valley between the mountains of China…

Up above the small community in the breezy night air, the red dragon levitated, looking down at it with scorn. After a convulsion, it morphed back into the man with his opened red jacket. As it fluttered to his side, his black and silver armor was visibly shining under the village's bonfires. He said to himself, "Time to give these chumps the push."

Down below, many of the villagers were gathered around a bonfire, a few of them telling stories and such. There were families, farmers, merchants, all of whom were taking a relaxing break from the day's work. The evil man from above lowered himself down close, but high enough to be a few meters above the bonfire. Many of the villagers were perplexed by the sudden appearance of the floating man, as all the laughing, dancing, and storytelling stopped. Having their undivided attention, he said in their own native language loud enough for everyone to hear, "Hello, squatters. My name is Reiden Long, and this used to be my empire's land before we were overthrown. Now that I'm back from Oblivion, I've come back here to retake my proper kingdom. Any questions?"

After a five second silence, one of the male farmers said in a plain American dialect, "We speak English, you know!"

The floating man known as Reiden said, "Huh? For reals?"

Another villager shouted up to him, "Yeah! What's wrong with you? Don't insult us!"

"Oh, well in that case, did you hear what I said?"

Everyone below said, "Yes."

Reiden scratched his head, "Oh, wow, then I guess I shall continue. Anyway," he made his voice sound menacing again, "I'm going to destroy this pathetic village along with anyone who opposes me. Everyone else will become my slaves."

One of the elderly villagers stepped up and said, "Yeah, I, uh, see that you're trying to drive a hard bargain here, but, uh, I'm just not believing you. That you're evil. I mean, I see that you're flying, but then again, so do cute little birdies! And look at…" The elderly man suddenly burst into flames and simmered into ash. Surprisingly, there were no eyes and stuff on the pile.

This action made everyone gathered around the bonfire gasp. They looked up from the ash pile to see Reiden with his hand outstretched at the once living, and criticizing, man. His fingertips were simmering like ambers. He said, sounding irritated, "Okay, now that you know I'll even kill old people who act like they're above me, I'd start listening."

Many of the village children began whimpering and holding closely to their mothers. One child said, "You're a monster!"

"You don't know how right you are." Reiden raised his arm, and a glowing, two foot diameter fireball materialized around his hand. "Now, I'm going to give you all fifteen seconds to vacate the premises before I singe every last hut around here."

The villagers began desperately protesting at the foe, "You can't do this!" "This is our home!" "Just take my wife!" and "You're not moving us out that easy!"

After seeing everyone stand their ground, giving both hard and frightful looks, Reiden decided it was time to teach them who's boss. "Hmm…my, my, you all are a stubborn, tenacious little town…all the more fun to break you." He brought the blazing ball of flame down to his side. This made the people less tense, but all in vain. In a bowler's fashion, Reiden chucked the fireball at a nearby group of huts, creating a blazing inferno among half of the village.

Everyone around the bonfire screamed and ran in various directions, away from the dangerous outsider. Other people from around the town had seen the attack, and those who weren't hit or killed by it decided to grab their weapons and check out what was going on. When a band of armed men saw the running pedestrians cowering and screaming, they became even more confused. One of the men with wavy black hair and jade eyes asked another man familiar to him, "What's happening over there?"

The other villager answered hurriedly, "It was a mysterious outsider—he started blowin' stuff up! He was talking about taking away our land and making us slaves—and he killed Grandpa Genji! Although he probably deserved it…"

"What?" The wavy-haired man quickly ran back to his own hut. He opened the cloth to reveal two young girls, one of them looking around fifteen or sixteen, the other looking around five or six; they shared the same eye and hair color as the man. They were looking quite frightened as they held each other closely in the middle of the room. He said to the eldest girl, "Len, whatever you do, stay in the hut with Lil. I'm going to go check it out."

The older girl said, "But Dad,—"

"Don't leave the hut, Len! I'll be back soon…" He seized a spear mounted on the wall, walked out the hut, closed the cloth, and left towards the direction of the chaos. Many of the people had already run away while some straggled behind. Smoke began rising and engulfing the many houses and fields. The man finally caught up with some other spear-equipped comrades, but before he got too close, another fireball launched at a nearby produce vendor, causing an explosion that sent him and his comrades flying backwards. Charred potatoes and squash rained down upon the area. The used the spear to hoist himself up, as he had only suffered minor damage. His comrades, however, were having trouble getting up, seeing as how they had been so close to the blast. The jade-eyed man had barely stood on two feet when he saw him.

Reiden stood on the ground five feet away from him, staring at him with a menacing grin. Reiden chuckled and said, "Is this it? Is this all you people got? What an embarrassment to MY land!"

The village man pointed his spear like an accusing finger at Reiden. He asked furiously, "Who are you? And why are you here destroying Buru Village?"

Reiden stared at the metal tip of the spear and laughed at the man. With a single convulsion, he turned back into the great crimson dragon. He stood on all fours and brought his head down from his long, red and golden neck right in front of the man's body, nose-to-nose. With a deep and menacing voice, he said, "I just want to take back my rightful land."

The black-haired man yelled in fear and backtracked eight feet away from the beast. He stood up and bravely brandished his spear, shouting, "DIE, YOU FOUL MONSTER!" He lunged the spear at his scaly head, which was only to be disintegrated by fire he shot out from his red snout.

Dragon Reiden muttered loudly, "Pathetic." The thought of sealing the puny man's fate ran laps in his mind. Inhaling until his chest ballooned, he blew out a stream of fire.

* * *

Roxas: Roxas here, again. Sorry, Aku Aku is on Millionaire right now, so I am once again filling in for him. But that's a good thing, am I right? So here come two more bios...

Mario

**Age:** 36  
**Gender:** Male  
**Species:** Human

He's the Mario we all know and love, or knew and loved. This Mario is now retired and living the normal life, with a normal job, and slightly normal friends. So his friends might still be paranormal, but they seek the same change Mario does. He's no longer traversing tubes and pipes, so much as cleaning and fixing them. He's no longer rescuing pink princesses. He's no longer illegally using mushrooms, as much. He's given that all up for an easy life. His occupation is not-so-ironically plumbing; they say he's the best. But deep down is a hero burning to become recognized again as the stereotypical idol he once was. Mario first ventured his way to glory in _Mario Bros.,__ 1983._

Reiden

**Age:** ?  
**Gender:** Male  
**Species:** Human/Dragon Shapeshifter

(That's pronounced RAY-din, not RY-din) Reiden was once the proud leader of a small rebel army in ancient China some nine hundred years ago. They were more like pirates than an army, as they had pillaged and plundered many towns. Later, they built a stronghold in the valley where Buru Village now currently resides. It was a menacing fortress that left smoke in the air visible above the mountains miles away. That fortress was also a dojo, where he learned how to finally fully control his dragon form. But he didn't stop there; he joined forces with Draksin, who in that time was in cahoots with Dark Makers. Draksin granted him immortality in exchange for his allegiance. After Reiden's fall, the Precursors banished him to Oblivion. Now he's returned to bring rise back to his evil reign. His main weapons are dual arm-blades hidden under his sleeves. Also he uses the power of fire to cause destruction, along with a devastating dragon form. Reiden is an original villain of good ol' _CadeXHybrid_.


	15. Game Time

Chapter 15: Game Time

Orphco saw it all. He was meditating in his own garden grotto up in the Twilight Realm's heavens. The bald Precursor woke to reality by the horrifying screams he heard all the way in China. He shuddered and shook at the death count Reiden had caused. He said to himself in a hurried tone, "I must alert the heroes of this assault…!"

Back on Earth, Jak and Daxter were picking for their kickball teams, unaware of the tremendous threat that lingered a few hundred thousand miles away. Lined up shoulder to shoulder were Sly, Bentley, Murray, Crash, Crunch, Coco, Ratchet, Clank, Link, and Keira. The green-haired man picked first.

"I'll have—Crunch." The mighty bandicoot lit up as he strolled over next Jak.

The furry ottsel picked next. "Murray, get over here, big boy."

Jak chose, "Link."

Dax' picked, "I choose the bandi-chick that reminds me of Tess." Confused at first, Coco then realized he was talking to her. She skipped on over next to Daxter.

Jak scratched his goatee and said, "Keira, you're on my team." The blue-haired girl strode over to Jak's side and leaned her elbow on his shoulder.

Daxter picked, "Sly, you sneaky devil, get over here."

Next, Jak said, "I pick…Clank!"

Daxter glared at Jak for a second. "So it's gonna be like that, eh?" He looked at Bentley, Crash, and Ratchet. Randomly, he chose, "Roll your cyborg butt on over here, Bentley."

When he got close enough to Dax', he whispered, "Check this out…" The turtle lifted one of the many secret compartments of his wheelchair, showing something secret to him. This made Daxter smile devilishly.

Two left, Jak thought hard on his next decision. Crash…or Ratchet. "Crash, get over here buddy."

The bandicoot said, "About dang time! I'm the one who thought of this game, don't know why I'm not a captain." Crash lugged himself over next to Keira with the large contraption planted firmly on his head.

That last decision made Ratchet exclaim, "Oh come on!"

"Well," said Daxter, "I guess that means you're on my team, cat-boy. No purring or licking the ball, got it?"

"Whatever," Ratchet said miserably.

Daxter glanced at the three teens, duck, and dog chilling off under a Wumpa Tree nearby. He called over to them, "Hey! Are you sure you guys don't wanna get in on this?"

Kairi answered for all of them, "No, we're fine."

The furry ottsel's eyes trailed down to Sora's black shoes. "C'mon, big-foot, we could use ya!"

Sora shot back, "Shut up! It's how I was animated!"

"Whatever, can we just start?" complained Keira.

Everyone agreed with Keira's notion, and began getting in position. Crash and Crunch began dragging their feet in the grass to create the diamond. They used a beach towel for home plate, Jak's JET-Board for first base, Crash's shoes for second base, and Link's metallic Hylian Shield for third base. Daxter's team of Coco, Sly, Bentley, Ratchet, and Murray started on the field, whereas Jak's lineup of Link, Crunch, Keira, Clank, and Crash waited in line at home base to kick.

Daxter was up to pitch to their first kicker, Link. He held the larger, red ball in front of his face, ready to bowl it down the middle.

From the back of the line, Crash called over to Link, "Don't forget to kick!"

Link turned around, confused, and said, "Huuuuuuh?"

Daxter took this opportunity of Link's confusion to pitch the ball. It rolled right through the Left Handed Hero's legs as he turned back to Daxter. The ottsel gave him a grin and a raised eyebrow as the ball was returned back to him by Coco. A sudden look of anger mixed with mortification overtook his face as he realized he had just been weaseled. Pun intended.

"Steeerike ONE!" hollered Murray, on third.

Jak hollered from the "dugout", "Come on, Link! Kick the ball!"

Link hollered back, "It was the bandi-rat's fault!"

Crunch advised, "Just ignore that fool!"

Keira called over to Daxter, "C'mon, LET'S GO!"

"Wait for my finesse to catch on," Daxter said calmly.

Sly, on shortstop, taunted Link, "Hey, batter-batter-batter-batter-SWING!"

Again, Link had gotten confused and made to kick the ball entirely too early. As the ball zoomed towards him, Link had already flipped up in the air, completely missing the ball. He landed flat on his back, getting his tunic dirty. He said to himself, "Good grief."

Everyone on the other team laughed to their hearts' content, while Sora, Riku, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy watched in embarrassed horror for the Hylian.

"Ha, ha, strike two, elf boy!" commentated Daxter as Coco threw him back the ball again.

Clank yelled angrily, "Oh, come on! Even I could have hit that!"

Jak walked over to Link, who was still lying in the ground, and said, "Okay, this is bad. Try pretending the ball is the head of someone that annoys you," he got closer and whispered, "_like Daxter!_"

"I'll try." Link stood up again and readied himself this time. He closed his eyes and saw the ball as Ganondorf's ugly, ugly face. That orange receding hairline…that fuzzy beard…those thick eyebrows…that sickly-green skin…that big, stupid nose…those empty, yellow eyes…and that God-awful headdress. _Alright, now I'm ready!_

Daxter bowled the kickball down the middle, and this time, Link slammed his boot into the red ball with the force of a bull. Link's success in actually hitting the ball took everybody by surprise. The kickball flew through the air like a cannonball; it flew directly over Dax's head and hit a crooked Wumpa Tree, causing the projectile to ricochet into three more trees.

Riku yelled, "Hit the dirt!" as the ball threateningly shot in their direction. Goofy's head almost became an unfortunate victim of the ball's wrath until Donald yanked his collar downward. It bounced off of the tree and towards the Bandicoot house.

At the time, Mario had swung open the door, walking out, clutching onto many broken pipes. The metal was slightly obscuring his vision as he slowly hiked in his van's direction. His journey was cut short, however; the ball slammed into his abdomen, shoving him backwards. The rusty pipes he was previously holding clattered and clobbered all over his face. He didn't get back up…

Everyone stared for about thirty seconds until Bentley slowly asked, "…Is he going to be okay?"

Daxter said disappointedly, "Well I guess that ends our game early."

Bentley looked down at his watch, looked up into the sky, and said, "It looks like the flight is on time."

Up in the calm blue sky, a medium sized remote control plane zipped in the sky. A long rope connected from the plane's bottom to a box-sized cargo hung several feet below. The remote plane hovered high up above the tree home's front lawn and detached its cord. The shipment dropped a few feet until a parachute linked to its top opened up, causing its altitude to slowly decline. Once it touched down, Bentley, Murray, and Sly opened up the package and pulled out their equipment: Sly's cane, parachute, alarm clocks, and smoke bombs; Murray's metal boxing gloves and bag of peanuts; Bentley's…all kinds of junk.

Sly said proudly as he twirled his cane, "Yeah! We're finally ready for some action!"

Off a completely different topic, Crash said to Coco and Crunch, "Hey guys! In the house! Aku Aku is gonna be on TV!"

"Ah, sweet! Let's go!" cheered Coco as the three dipped into the house. They each hopped over the comatosed plumber.

In the living room, they planted themselves down on the sofa and switched on the television. Crash changed the channel to _Who Wants to be a Millionaire? _and cranked up the volume. On the screen, Crash, Coco, and Crunch saw the witchdoctor mask floating in the hot seat. Across from him sat a gray haired man named Regis Philbin.

On the flat screen television, Regis said with his natural spunk, "So, Aku Aku, you've got twenty five thousand dollars so far, (_the audience cheers_), and I wanna know, just what the heck are you planning to do with all that moo-la?"

Aku responded, "Well, uh, Regis, I'm actually looking into paying for a, uh, plumbing service. Right now, my family and I are not even living with running water."

"Well that's just remarkable, a family man trying to provide for his family! (_The audience cheers again_) Now, you haven't quite told us about your family, tell us!"

"Oh, well I watch over three little bandicoots named Crash, Crunch, and Coco. They're the best kiddie's in the whole wide, wide, world. I love 'em. And I'm also looking for a spouse on , if any of the ladies are interested… (_the audience woos_).

On the couch, Coco commented, "That was very sweet, but I doubt he can meet anyone with a penname like McLovinMyFeathers!"

Back on TV, Regis got on with the questions, "Alright, here's the next question…(_the dramatic music and lights cued_)…For fifty thousand dollars…What is the name of the movie that jumpstarted Johnny Depp's acting career in the early nineteen nineties that was about a mysterious man with scissor-hands?"

Crunch exclaimed, "Oh, COME ON! That's like the easiest question ever!"

Regis read the multiple choice answers, "A: Meet the Fockers; B: Mr. Deeds; C: The Hangover; or D: Edward Scissorhands."

Coco said under her breath, "Fifty thousand dollars, here we come."

Crunch corrected, "Technically, it's coming to us."

"Whatever!"

On _Millionaire_, Aku Aku said, "Aw, man…this is a tough one."

Crash said, "You can't be serious…"

"Oh…man, gah, it's on the tip of my tongue…I just saw The Hangover…Don't think Depp was in that one…Stiller was in Meet in the Fockers, so…my answer is B: Mr. Deeds!"

Coco shrieked, "Oh. My. God!"

Crash screamed loudly, "WOW!"

Crunch said calmly, "Remind me to slap him in the back of the wood when he gets back."

Regis staggered, "…uh, is that seriously your final answer?"

Aku responded with vain confidence, "Yes, sir, that is!"

Regis said rather anticlimactically, "Yeah, uh, that's wrong."

"Ah, crud. Well thanks for having me! I'm glad to be on TV." Aku took his wheel barrel of twenty five thousand and exited the door.

Regis said with his spunk again, "Next week, we're having a hedgehog that calls himself Shadow on the show, so stay tuned!"

Crash turned off the TV, sighed, and said, "Well, at least we can pay for the plumbing, although fifty thousand would've been nice."

Aku Aku appeared in front of the TV with the barrel of green lugged underneath him. "Look what I won, guys!"

All three bandicoots sat on the couch and stared at the feathered plank with extreme disappointment.

"Now, now, children. I threw that last question on purpose."

All three exclaimed, "WHAT?"

Aku continued, "I did it so the money wouldn't go to our heads."

"Well, you won more money than we needed, which was eight thousand." Coco said, teary eyed.

"Then we'll give the rest to charity."

Crunch stood up and said, "I'm proud of you, Aku Aku! You settin' a real great example for us."

Crash suggested, "I guess that's better than being rich with money. Cuz we're rich in our own souls, right Aku?"

"Exactly, Crash!"

Coco muttered, "Teacher's pet…"

Outside, Daxter and Link were trying to diagnose Mario's condition. "You killed him," Daxter analyzed.

"No, I think I see him breathing a little," Link replied quietly.

"Nah, he's dead, murderer."

Over by the shady bushes, Donald, Riku, and Sora had dozed off. Goofy was busy climbing the nearby trees, trying to chase a few squirrels. Kairi had helped herself up and went over to the ottsel and Hylian boy standing over the plumber. She noticed his face turning purple, and said, "I think something is obstructing his breathing."

Link quickly performed CPR rather roughly, punching the man's diaphragm repeatedly. Finally, he coughed up a small remnant of a pipe, but he didn't wake back up. "Hey, his color is returning!" Link cheered, pleased with his work.

"It looks like he's going to be okay," Kairi assured. "Good job, Link, was it?"

"Yes, thanks for the tip." He gave her one of those bright smiles where his eyes are just closed arcs.

A little freaked out, Kairi slowly turned and walked in the opposite direction, however she didn't take one step until she was thrown back by a sudden intense force of light. Orphco the Precursor of Twilight stood tall where Kairi was originally planning to walk past.

Once he noticed he had knocked down a person, he said, "Whoops, my apologies, Kairi. Got to stop doing that…"

Daxter cursed loudly, "Oh GREAT! It's another Precursor dude. I'm getting tired of looking at you guys' faces! If only you were orange and furry like the cooler Precursors!"

Jak and the others gathered around Orphco as the bandicoots and their guardian exited their home. Goofy roughly woke up Sora, Donald, and Riku to go hear what the Precursor had to say. Once everyone had finally assembled in front of Orphco, Jak asked seriously, "What is it, Orphco? Did you find the whereabouts of the villains?"

Orphco replied, "Yes, well actually one of them. He's located in a village in China called Buru. He has revealed his name to be Reiden Long, and he's killed some of the villagers already."

"Awesome," Ratchet said. "Now you can take me there so I can kick his butt and get to the next one."

"Not so fast, Ratchet. I should warn you all that he posses some kind of fire-based powers, but I highly doubt that is the only method of offense he holds. So be careful, everyone."

Sora rubbed his eyes and asked, "You're going to take us there now? Oh, man, day one is the worst."

Link strapped on his arrow canister, shield, and sword. The warrior said fiercely, "I'm ready for the first trial."

Orphco suddenly had a look of being hit across the face with a brick. "Link? What are you doing here? Darn that Glen! I asked him to bring you back to Hyrule!"

"That's okay, I've changed my mind," Link said gently. He then shot a quick smile at Kairi before looking back at Orphco. "I want to fight alongside these people now. They're friendly."

Kairi was definitely not the only person who noticed…

"Outstanding," Orphco said, "for once Glennatus does something right. Now, does everyone have all of their supplies?"

A positive response resonated from each mouth.

"Good. I shall teleport you all in the middle Buru Village. Don't forget to work together."

Crash leaned over to Kairi and whispered obnoxiously loudly, "_I think that Link fellow likes you! You wanna know why? I just saw him give you a warm smile. It could have been for me…nah, it was for you. That would be weird if it wasn't for you and it was for me. Very weird. Like, so weird, I wouldn't know what to do with myself. _(He inhaled) _But, yeah. If I were you, I would so look into seeing that guy some time. You know, if I went like that. But I'm not that kind of bandicoot. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I know a tiger named Tiny…_"

"Um, Crash," the redhead started, "you're making my ear VERY moist…"

"Hey, are we just going to leave that guy here?" Murray asked, referring to Mario.

"…Yes," Coco said plainly.

Orphco counted to three and teleported, leaving the island, the house, the sunshine, and the plumber all behind the way they left it.

* * *

_Thank you. You all out there are probably wondering why it took so long for me to update and expect me to beg for forgiveness at your feet. Not happenin', but:  
Excuse: My brother just got The Sims 3 and would not for the life of me stop playing. He blinked about twice in forty eight hours. And he's so addicted, like CRACKHEAD addicted. He will start scratching and hyper ventilating if he's away from the computer for three minutes. So that's my excuse. _

_So, to make it up to you, I bring you two more action packed chapters, and more!_


	16. Let My People Grow

Chapter 16: Let My People Grow

The mountains around Buru Village had become capped with frigid snow. Ash and sleet steadily fell down to the village's singed fields and charred houses. The surviving citizens, which numbered from three hundred to four hundred, were all roped and chained in sequential lines, one trudging behind the other. The chains wrapped loosely around each of their necks, connecting them in the lines, the tall and the small. Ropes bound their wrists together individually, hands resting in front of them. As they walked in their slow rhythmic pattern, the chains bounced and clanged due to their size differences.

The captured men, women, and children were lining up at the edges of their once thriving village. In the center, Reiden floated up above in a meditating position. Eyes closed, he began whispering some kind of curse, probably the reason the chains and ropes were tightly bound around each of them. Suddenly the ground underneath the war torn village began faltering, and the landscape lifted up two hundred feet, taking a lot of the village with it. The uplifted landscape revealed limestone that rose right in front of the prisoners' noses; they all stared in fear and astonishment as their home was being destroyed.

The landscape stopped rising a few feet from under Reiden. Still in the same position, he whispered a different curse; the landscape began to mold and shape into a structure of sorts. It shaped archways, roofs, windows, and smoke vents; the excess dirt and rock were telekinetically suspended in midair a hundred feet above him. Next, he started carving out an interior which consisted of a large auditorium and a few other smaller rooms. He repeated the same process with the excess rock dust.

Reiden opened his eyes to revere his work. "Ah, yes. Even more beautiful than my last fortress. But every fortress needs an army to guard it…" With the plethora of rock and dust still hanging in the air, Reiden began shaping and molding several pieces together to form skeletal figures. With his telekinetic powers, he brought some of the rocks and minerals in front of him; he blasted the floating debris with flames from both of his hands. The rocks turned crispy and metallic as they were compressed and then separated into individual shapes. Half of them were black metallic war helmets of sorts, while the other half was a mix of sharp dagger-like swords and bow and arrows. Reiden joined the weapons with the skeletal figures, equipping all of them. He lowered his army down to the landscape that hadn't been disturbed. They each began doing individual duties, some taking charge of the slaves while others marched into the fortress.

Reiden Long removed a small stone that he raided from a home last night from his jacket pocket. In symbols, it was labeled "Oni-Stone." He said to himself, "No doubt that pompous punk Orphco and his band of sissy-nannies will try something soon. I haven't been exactly quiet. But with this, they won't be able to materialize anywhere near my fortress. They'll have to go through my border patrols, first."

* * *

_Maybe not quite as action packed, but still cool! **Arrows in the Mist **next!_


	17. Arrows in the Mist

Chapter 17: Arrows in the Mist

Orphco and the large team of eighteen materialized on a thin aired, snow capped mountaintop. Orphco knew something was wrong, seeing as how they weren't surrounded by village huts. "Wait everyone, let me retry," he said. For some reason, something or someone was blocking out his teleportation abilities. It wasn't letting him get any closer to Buru. "I'm sorry, everyone, but I cannot take you any further."

Donald exclaimed, shaking from the cold, "WHY NOT?"

"Some kind of obstruction is impeding my—"

Daxter interjected, "Yeah, yeah, enough big words. Just point us in the right direction, please."

"Hmph. He's located due north up along this mountain. It's going to get pretty foggy, so watch your step; it's a long way down. Now, when you get there, Reiden is sure to have some kind of military activity enslaving the villagers, so be sure to free them as well. We're counting on you all, and don't forget to work together. Farewell." He teleported back to the Twilight Realm.

Jak announced over all of them, "Okay, before we get moving, I declare myself the leader and captain. Whatever I say, you DO." Riku gave him a stern look. "And right now—"

"Who died and made you king?" spat the silver haired boy. On Jak's shoulder, Daxter signaled for Riku to shut his trap, lest he take a beating. There was more than one reason Riku should stop saying the words "king" and "died."

"That's a pretty interesting question…" Jak whispered with emptiness in his eyes.

Trying to quell the situation, Keira spoke rather loudly, "Well, um, Jak has had a lot of experience in times of war and, um, he…"

"So have we!" Riku said. "That's why we're all here!"

Sora muttered to Riku, "Um, I think it would be a great idea if you stopped talking, Riku!"

"Well," began Jak, returning to his normal demeanor, "I am the oldest human here. It's only fair."

Coco interjected, "W-W-W-Would it be to much to ask…TO GET MOVING? It's f-f-f-freezing up-p-p-p-p-p here!"

"Sounds like a great idea," Sly agreed. "I'm warm though, thanks to my raccoon pants!"

"I c-c-c-could u-u-u-u-use a pair of-f those!" replied Coco.

Link hollered, "Onward march! Those villagers need rescuing!"

The eighteen briskly hiked through the snow on the mountaintop trying to keep warm; Kairi wished they had been reminded to bring their jackets before being teleported; Jak, in his white tee, decided to lend his jacket Keira; Aku Aku was doing his best to warm them all up with his thermal powers.

Crash held two fingers to his mouth and puffed out vapor. He said, "Look, Crunch, look. I'm _smoking!_"

Crunch sounded like an after-school special, "Not so fast! Smoking causes gingivitis, lung cancer, and DEATH! Think smoking is cool? Try football."

"Now I know!" Crash said as a rainbow appeared over his head.

Kairi saw what Jak did for Keira and gave Sora a needy look. He didn't notice at first until she started tugging at his shoulder. "What's the matter, Kairi?"

She said in a cutesy tone, "Don'tcha wanna offer me your coat?"

"You mean this vest? It might not cover up much."

"But just offering would be nice."

"What's the point if you still say no?"

She sighed, "Sora, just give me your vest."

The area around them was starting to become very foggy. While attempting to remove his vest, Sora tripped over a rock and landed on his face. "OUCH! I can't see a thing."

From the mist, Jak heard a peculiar metallic sound. He called to everyone, "Wait, everybody stop!"

Everyone in the party stopped dead in their tracks. Sora stayed frozen on the ground.

Silence.

After a few moments of listening to the wind, Jak signaled for everyone to keep walking.

However, Jak didn't take two steps until a sharp arrow shot from the mist and grazed his left arm. "DAMN!" he cursed at the top his lungs, clutching his left arm. "Arrows! They're coming from the fog!"

Suddenly thousands of arrows rained down upon them from the white mist.

"RUN!" Jak shouted. All of a sudden, he summoned a light flow and all of his features turned a glowing blue color. With his Light powers, he summoned a blue shield around him, Daxter, Keira, Ratchet, and Clank. They all started running alongside Light Jak, trying to keep up. The arrows slammed into the shield, creating red pulsations.

Bentley flipped a switch and an umbrella poofed out the side of his chair. It was large and metallic, spanning about ten feet long in diameter. Quickly, Sly, Murray, Goofy, Donald, and Riku slunk behind it, avoiding the arrows as they clanged on the metal umbrella.

Crash, Coco, Kairi, and Crunch quickly got behind the safety of Aku's green shield. Seeing him struggling to get off the ground, Crunch swiftly lugged Sora up over his shoulder, saving his life.

While running, Kairi tripped and landed in the frost, falling behind. Over Crunch's shoulder, Sora yelled back, "KAIRI!" as she slowly fell behind them.

Crunch looked over his shoulder and realized she wasn't going to make it…

At the last second, Link dashed on the scene and held his Hylian Shield upright to protect the princess. Why does that sound so familiar?

"Come on, we must go!" Link hollered over the arrows clanging on his metal shield. He helped her up with one arm, grasping around her midsection, and ran with her, keeping his other arm outstretched to the oncoming arrows. Slowly, they caught up with Sora and the Bandicoots, who were following Bentley and his squad, who were also following Jak and his troop.

Finally they reached a clearing of the mist, where a cliff overlooked the giant structure known as Reiden's Fortress. The arrows finally stopped raining, as they must have finally lost their attackers.

Coco said slowly, "Oh, my God."

Everyone else was in awe as well. They stood and stared at the mighty fortress. Much like a factory, there were many vents and tubes that blew smoke, almost as if someone was producing things in there. Large windows were sealed by black, metal bars, whereas the only entrance was a large double door down near the bottom. Speaking of the bottom, they could see people working down there on smaller buildings of sorts.

"Those must be the villagers," Ratchet stated. "Let's go everyone. It's time to be heroes!"

At that point, Link let go of Kairi and said, "Well, you're safe now."

"Thanks, Link. One more second, and I would have been a porcupine," she replied.

"That's funny," said Link, "I've never met a porcupine with soft, red hair before."

Kairi laughed, fingered a strand of her hair and said, "Oh, stop."

Oblivious to what was happening at the moment, Sora dashed over to Kairi and Link. "Kairi, are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine Sora," she responded cheerfully.

Next, he gave Link a look that said, "Take eighty steps back!" but he actually said, "Thanks for, you know, saving her…even though I would've done it if I had the chance."

Link figured he'd just accept this as gratitude. "Your welcome, Zora."

"Actually, it's SORA. S-O-R-A-."

"Whatever." Link patted Kairi's shoulder and said, "Be sure to keep safe, Kairi."

Sora cut the girl off, put his arm around her shoulders, and said, "Yes, WE will!"

* * *

Roxas: Good job, Sora.

_Yes indeedy. Stay tuned for another futuristic episode in **The Villlagers**__!_


	18. The Villagers

Chapter 18: The Villagers

Sometime in the future…

In the outskirts of Wumpa City was a rather large, red building that spanned out several feet wide. There were a few drive-thru parking lots at the base of the edifice, as well as many windows on each floor. One would think that this was just an office building, but on the contrary, it was actually the home and workspace of Coco Bandicoot.

On the top floor, located near a great window made of thick layers of plexiglass, was the baby's room. It was full of toys, kiddy books, ABC carpets, had a humidifier, a changing table and a crib, all that junk. In the crib sat the green haired baby boy in his tee-shirt and diaper, pacifier in mouth, waiting for his mother to come and do whatever she's supposed to do when he wakes up.

The fancy electric door slid open to reveal a nineteen or twenty year old Coco, bright eyed and glowing. Glowing? People don't glow…

Anyway, she happily skipped over to her son sitting up in the crib. She said in a babyish tone, "Hey, there! Did you sleep well, my little hybrid prince? That's called the REM cycle! That stands for Rapid Eye Movement. Can you say that? _Rapid Eye Movement._"

The little infant dropped his pacifier and, surprisingly, said very loosely, "_Rapi…Eye…Moo-ment…_"

"Good job!" Coco exclaimed and kissed the baby. "You're so smart! And only five months old, too! At this rate, you'll be more intelligent than Setto ever was!"

The cellular phone in Coco's pocket rang and vibrated. Coco said, "Wait, I have to answer my phone, okay baby? I'll be right back!"

She walked over to the wall-long plexiglass window that overlooked the suburban area of Wumpa City and took out her cell phone. She didn't recognize the caller id, but answered it anyway. "Hello?"

"Hey, it's me…" said a young male voice, around her age.

She recognized the voice immediately, but she didn't say anything back.

"Um, hello?" he asked, confused. He asked himself in a very gloomy tone, "God, she didn't hang up on me, did she?"

Finally, Coco answered the man on the other end. "Nicky?"(1)

"Oh, Coco, um…how's it goin'?" he asked, trying very hard to sound casual.

In a harshly angry tone, Coco barked, "Where the hell have you been?"

"I know you have every reason to be angry with me right now—"

"Darn right, I do! You left me for your old girlfriend right after—and you even missed the birth of your own SON, who, by the way, still doesn't have a definite name yet! I had to forge your name on his birth certificate, but you better believe that's going to change soon."

"Okay, okay, I get it. Stop yelling…"

Coco sighed, fogging the window. "Why did you even call?"

"I just wanted to tell you that…I want to have a family, now. I wasn't ready before, so I ran. I know what really matters now—and I really love you, and I want to love my son, too, before it's too late."

Coco pressed her head up against the window and smiled. "I'm guessing Crash talked to you, then, huh?"

He laughed. "Yeah, and I'm glad he didn't take Crunch with him, or I might not be calling you right now."

Her mood a little lighter, she asked, "So where are you calling from, anyway?"

"Oh, I'm at the police department."

"Nicky!"

"Don't worry, I'm just here for speeding tickets. They're about to let me go, anyway."

She laughed. "You should learn to slow down sometimes. So, I'll see you…"

"This afternoon, promise!"

She smiled contently. "Okay, Nicky. I love you."

"Love you, too, babe."

They hung up, and Coco turned around to see the baby boy trying to climb out the crib to his mother. She walked over to the tot and picked him up in her arms. She said in his ear, "Guess what! We're gonna have a family. You, me, and your daddy…"

* * *

On the mountain peak, Coco exclaimed, "Oh, my God! That thing is huge! Did this Reiden guy really build that?"

"It looks like he built much more," Sly said, observing the skeletal soldiers.

Keira deducted, "Those soldiers must be what attacked us just now."

"Which means we need to be very careful with our backs to those guys," added Clank. "I'm talking about you, Ratchet."

Murray pounded his fists and said, "Looks like a bunch of scum bags ordered a beat-down!"

With a little help from Donald's Cure spell, Jak's arrow wound was rapidly healing over as they spoke. The green-blonde haired man turned to everyone and announced, "Alright everyone, it's looks like we have to scale down the mountain cliff. It's probably best that we split up into groups so we're not easy targets like last time."

"How about six teams of three?" suggested Bentley. "I volunteer Crash, Aku, and I."

Jak responded, "Okay, my squad will be made of me, Dax', and Link."

Coco spoke up, "I'll go with Murray and Donald."

Keira decided, "And I'll group with Ratchet and Clank."

Sly vouched, "Alright then, my group will be me, Crunch and Goofy."

Sora said, talking about him, Kairi, and Riku, "Hmm, I guess it's us three in the same group. How original…"

Jak said, "When we get down, spread out and we'll meet up in the fortress. Alright, people, let's move."

Crash shook some snow off of his Vocabulizer and popped his neck. He slipped on his golden Crash N' Burn jacket, zipped up, and said, "Let's get to it."

* * *

The villagers were already being forced into labor, breaking rocks off the mountainside and bringing them inside the mighty fortress. The chains and ropes that were previously bound to them had been removed by the rock soldiers. The black haired man who tried to take on Reiden alone was now hammering away at the mountainside with a pickaxe along with a few more men. He had bandages wrapped around his torso, indicating injury.

The young teenaged girl with the identical black hair and green eyes like her father was slowly being led by two other troops. She had her head down and her hands behind her back. As soon as she got a glimpse of her father, she yelled, "Dad!" and ran to his position, embracing him tightly.

The Stone Troopers (I hate that name) quickly ran over to the father and daughter, and one of them said in a nerdy, geeky monotone, "Hey! No loving!"

The other soldier said, "Yeah! Now, you take all the medium-sized rocks from this guy and take them to Lord Reiden's welding room. Understand?"

The girl stuck her tongue out. Apparently, that was confirmation enough for the two troopers because they stalked off, one of them muttering, "Stupid human chick…."

The father asked the girl, "Len, where's Lil? Did they take her away?"

She answered, "Yeah, sort of. They put all of the children in the absurdly named Toy Room. It's a filthy cellar full of rats and dust. It's dark, dank, and smelly. But on the bright side, they actually have toys. But they're McDonald's toys."

"Those fiends!" He dropped his pickaxe in anger.

One of the other working villagers whispered, "Hey, ya know…I say we all go straight to that lizard Reiden and beat the snot out of him!"

A Stone Trooper marched over to the schemer and demanded, "What's going on here?"

The conspiring villager shouted, "I'll tell ya what's going on—" he gave the trooper a very long and drawn out, slow motion kick and screamed, "THIS, IS, BURU!"

He yanked up his pickaxe high in the air, looking glorious. The soldier he kicked down casually stood up and said, "What are you getting so excited for? All you did was kick me down. Spit on me, too. Geeze, calm down."

"Dang it!" the villager yelled as he was dragged away by the offended soldier. "Remember my cause, Jem, REMEMBER MY CAUSE!"

As the soldier dragged the activist away, he yelled back, "Hey, you two, get to work!"

Jem turned to her daughter and said, "We better do as we're told, Len."

The girl protested, "But Dad, we can't just let them do this to us. We have to stand up for ourselves!"

In a saddened tone, he replied, "I'm sorry, but these enemies are much stronger than all of us put together. I've had a firsthand account of seeing their strength." He hinted at his bandages as he tried picking up his pickaxe, but his wounds made him falter a bit.

Len tried helping out her father by holding him up with one arm. The Stone Troopers had had just about enough of their idle behavior, however. Five of the nasty guards marched over to them, two of them brandishing swords at Jem to keep him away from Len, two wielding bows and arrows at the other angry villagers, one clutching Len, and the last one wielding a sword up to her neck. She struggled vainly to break free as her father and the crowd angrily shouted and protested.

The soldier threatening to kill her said, "Lord Reiden did tell us to kill all those uncooperative…"

"Kill me instead, please!" pleaded Len's father from behind the two deadly blades.

"Actually, we'll kill the both of you, so everybody wins!"

Just then, a pair of feet in sneakers landed on the trooper threatening to kill Len. Another large pair of black and yellow feet landed on one of the Arrow Guards, while another purple pair landed on the other. Those feet belonged to none other than Sora, Kairi, and Riku.

"Get this!" Sora yelled as he slashed one of the guards holding back Jem.

Riku pointed his Way to the Dawn Keyblade at the last guard on the other side and blasted him with a freeze spell, turning him into a skeletal ice sculpture. Sora rammed the tip of his Ultima in the block of ice's "face."

Glad to be free, Jem ran over and embraced his daughter as the crowd cheered for the good guys. Jem said, "Thank you so much, strangers. You're not with Reiden, obviously. Who are you three?"

Sora volunteered the introductions, "We're Sora, Riku, and Kairi. Have you guys been captured by that Reiden guy?"

Len replied, "Yes, he and his little rock cronies have taken us all as prisoners. Until now, we haven't had any hope of being free again. I'm Len, by the way. This is my father, Jem."

Jak, Daxter, Link, and Keira, Ratchet, and Clank were slowly and carefully scaling down the mountainside, as were Coco, Donald, Murray, and Sly, Crunch, and Goofy.

"Looks like we missed the party," said Jak, glancing at the defeated soldiers.

Ratchet disappointedly sheathed his Combustor Cannon and said, "Aw, man! I wanted to break stuff. This trip stinks!"

"Fear not!" said Murray. "There are plenty skulls to smash around here!"

"A-hiyuck!" interjected Goofy. "Seems Sora, Riku, and Kairi took care of the first batch already."

Jem marveled at the different characters that had just descended from the heavens. He asked, staggering, "Are…are you all with these three?"

Daxter jumped down from Jak's shoulder and answered, "Actually, they're more like with us, and we are here to rescue and restore freedom to your land! No pictures, please."

Coco said, "We might look like a bunch of random characters, but we can pack some punch."

Up above, Crash, Bentley, and Aku Aku were slowly floating downwards in a glowing green transparent ball of energy. As soon as they touched down, the ball dissipated. The villagers in the immediate area stared at Crash's head.

Blankly, he asked, "Do any of you wanna know what this thing is for?"

The crowd responded with, "Uh, sure," "Okey dokey," "Yes indeedy!" "Why not?" "Not really…" and "Sounds dirty…"

"This is called the Voca—"

"Crash, we have no time for that!" Coco interrupted.

"She's right," said Jak, "we have to start moving. Split up."

Bentley pulled out six communicating devices from one of the compartments of his wheelchair. He handed one each to Jak, Ratchet, Sora, Coco, and Sly. He announced, "With these, we can communicate from far locations and stay in touch. They also have a tracking device that can find we're the other communicators are, so if any of us get in trouble, we can just use these."

Jak commented, pocketing the device, "Bentley, that's genius. Hopefully everyone will be safer with these. Let's roll out."

As the six groups began to disperse in separate directions, Len ran up with Riku and stopped him. "Wait!" she said. "You didn't let me thank you." She pulled at his collar into a bottomless kiss. "Please save my sister." She ran back to the rest of the villagers.

As the reddened silver haired boy stood there, baffled, Sora and Kairi said, "Oooo…"

Trying to regain his composure, Riku said, "Yeah, well, that happens—all the time. Let's—get moving."

"Yeah, right!" doubted Kairi.

"I can see where this is headed—" began Sora nonchalantly.

"LET'S RESCUE THE VILLAGERS!" Riku exclaimed, and then he started to strut as they walked down a path that led around the castle's parameter.

* * *

_(1) Nicky is the pet name Coco gives her spouse. Not giving out the full identity of the guy. Yet..._

_Anyway, next up, a tribute chapter! Take it away Aku Aku!_

Jem Huli

**Age: **35  
**Gender:** Male  
**Species:** Human

Jem is one of the many residing vilagers of Buru Village, a vast land between three mountains. His village was attacked and conquered by Reiden Long, and he lost his home. His eight year old daughter, Lil, was captured by Reiden's skeletal henchmen and placed in a kiddie daycare. His other daughter, Len, is sixteen and seems to have trouble taking orders from him. He has a quiet demeanor, and seems to be some kind of orginal warrior of his village. Jem is a minor original character by _CadeXHybrid._

Len Huli

**Age: **15  
**Gender: **Female  
**Species: **Human

Len Huli is the first born daughter of Jem Huli of Buru Village. Their village was undertaken by the evil Reiden Long, who, apparently, makes kids work, too. Her younger sibling seems to have gotten nabbed by Reiden's guards, and Len has pleaded for her rescue. Her demeanor is outright and, sometimes, thick-headed. But it is because she disobeyed her father that she and her little sister Lil managed to stay alive. It's also worth noting that she seems to have found an interest in Riku. You know, with the hot kiss? Anyway, she is another minor O.C. of _CadeXHybrid._

Stone Troopers

**Age: **None  
**Gender: **Ha, ha yeah right...  
**Species: **Limestone, brimestone...rocks?

These are the basic troops of Reiden. They come equipped with either a sword and a sheild, or a bow and arrows. They're humerous, nerdy, and brittle like Grandma's casserole. These weak little enemies were created by _CadeXHybrid._


	19. Thrills

Chapter 19: Thrills

On the third and top floor of the earthen stronghold, Reiden sat prominently in his throne. In his great atrium, two large windows had been mounted on the walls on either side of him, along with a large, circular glass pane installed in the ceiling. This all illuminated his throne room with the outside world's clouded sunlight.

A fifty-member battalion of Stone Soldiers stood lined up in front of Reiden in rows of five, awaiting orders. Reiden patiently sat in his throne, lightly tapping his chin. Finally, after many moments of stiff silence, Reiden said, "Leap, chen, hut!"

In a series of robotic movements, the soldiers turned to the left, extended their right arms outward, and straightened themselves up.

"Lou, han, xiao!"

This time, they all turned to their left twice, now facing their right. Then they withdrew their swords, some with bows and arrows, and brought their weapons into an offensive position. Some wielded their swords while others readied and aimed their arrows.

"Pan! Hai!"

At that, the soldiers all returned to their original positions, facing Reiden with their weapons stashed away.

It was quite obvious that the evil sovereign was impressed with his army's command. With a grin and a raised eyebrow, he commanded, "Now do Thriller."

Suddenly, out of seemingly know where, a funky jam started playing in the background, and the many soldiers had lined up in a triangle, a captain Stone Soldier taking the lead. At first, they began doing the trademark Thriller dance moves, grooving they're skeleton selves to the funky music. Whilst leading the other soldiers, the captain began chanting:

_It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark  
Under the moonlight, you see a sight that almost stops your heart  
You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it  
You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes  
You're paralyzed_

This time, they all slid five feet to the left, snapped their fingers, and spun around in place. The captain continued:

_'Cause this is thriller, thriller night  
And no one's gonna save you from the beast about strike  
You know it's thriller, thriller night  
You're fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller tonight_

_You hear the door slam and realize there's nowhere left to run  
You feel the cold hand and wonder if you'll ever see the sun  
You close your eyes and hope that this is just imagination, girl!  
But all the while you hear the creature creeping up behind  
You're out of time_

Whilst singing the next stanza, the captain led the rest into doing a variation of the oh-so familiar Crash Bandicoot Dance. They each swayed to the left, then the right, flinging their hands and feet on each side. After that groove, they brought their arms up and slammed them down while stamping their feet down twice. Next, they did a series of pelvic thrusts, pumping their fists in the process. Lastly, they spun around in place, jumped, and landed on the tips of their combat boots. Now remember, they did all that while the captain sang:

_'Cause this is thriller, thriller night  
There ain't no second chance against the thing with forty eyes, girl  
Thriller, thriller night  
You're fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller tonight_

They repeated the Bandicoot Dance again:

_Night creatures calling, the dead start to walk in their masquerade  
There's no escaping the jaws of the alien this time  
(They're open wide)  
This is the end of your life_

_They're out to get you, there's demons closing in on every side  
They will possess you unless you change that number on your dial  
Now is the time for you and I to cuddle close together, yeah  
All through the night I'll save you from the terror on the screen  
I'll make you see_

_That this is thriller, thriller night—_

Suddenly, a lame _South Park_ ringtone resounded throughout the great hall, interrupting the song. The skeleton-like troopers and their captain stopped, wondering whose cellphone it was. The ringtone was a cartoony, nasally voice saying:

_Hey you! Pick up your freakin' phone!_

_HEY YOU! PICK UP YOUR FREAKIN' PHONE!_

_Hey you! Pick up your freakin' phone!_

_HEY YOU! PICK UP YOUR FREAKIN' PHONE!_

Finally, after digging around his red robes in search of the screaming and vibrating phone, Reiden found his phone. He flipped it open and answered, "Talk to me."

The skeleton soldiers waited impatiently, tapping their feet and displaying annoyed looks. They were in the middle of breaking it down, after all…

"Yo, Jake, wha' 'sup! No, I'm not busy right now." This made the soldiers look VERY peeved. "Oh, man, she did what? Better get that girl in check, boy…So how's my little Haley doing?...That's great, Lao still talkin' mess about me? Better not…Ha, ha, Spud's right on that one…Do I look like a Dark Dragon, foo'?"

The Captain Soldier mumbled angrily under his breath, "Un. Believable."

One of the other dancers complained, "Aw man, I didn't even get to say the poem."

Reiden yelled harshly, "HEY! I'm on the phone! How rude of some people..." He went back to gabbing on his cell phone.

* * *

_Well, that might not have been much, but that was a tribute. R.I.P., MJ._

_I'm sure to do more of these...but later, our heroes utalize their infiltrative skills in **iStealth**!_


	20. iStealth

Chapter 20: iStealth, Part One

The midday afternoon was enshrouded by gloomy gray clouds over the once peaceful Buru Village. The vast land between three mountains had been burned or singed into ashes; homes had been ravaged by the disturbed terrain caused by Reiden's intuitional architecture.

The castle the evil tyrant had constructed reflected the very maniacal wickedness in his heart. The castle boasted four corners that stretched outward into separated structures of their own, ending with pointy towers that glowed green at the tips. The center tower, which was the biggest and most intimidating of the five, also glowed green at the tip. This is where Reiden's lair was located, but a group of three conspirators were only worried about the meaning of those eerie glows.

Concealed behind a trench that trailed to the back of one of the corner towers, Crash, Bentley, and Aku Aku silently walked, rolled, and floated past the guards patrolling on the upper level. Crash and Bentley had to make extra small movements due to the wet and muddy ground.

Bentley was fidgeting with a touch screen cellular phone while they traveled down the path. Out of innocent curiosity, Crash leaned over Bentley's shoulder and asked, "What'cha doin'?

Bentley quickly hid the device away from Crash's view. He whispered, "None of you're business!"

"Come on, I just wanna see what's on that thing!" Crash pried, keeping his voice down.

"Well, it's private—stay focused, Crash!"

Sighing, but surely not defeated, Crash said, "Okay, whatever you say." Crash began to back off the turtle, taking three steps away from him. He tried to act casual, walking with his hands in his pockets. In the cartooniest fashion possible, he stretched his eyeballs from their sockets to either side of Bentley's shoulders. He nosily observed Bentley's text message from a person named Penelope: "No problem, eezy stuff. Excpt for fitting all your nerd jnk in the box. Call me if you guyz survive, ok!"

"Hey, who's Penelope?" Crash loudly and bluntly asked, eyes still outstretched.

Bentley fumbled with phone, startled by Crash. "Crash, keep you're voice down!"

"My what?"

"YOU'RE VOICE!"

Aku Aku quickly hushed them, "SHHH!" A few skeletal guards from above the ravine heard them and cautiously walked over to the narrow dugout trail. "Okay, guys, just blend in…"

The three stone troops peered over the grassy edge, arrows at the ready. Instead of raining their arrows at intruders, they just scratched their heads at the odd looking "shrubs and bushes." Crash stood still, holding up a paper sign that read, "SHRABS AND BUSES." Bentley and Aku sat and floated stiff as boards next to the bandicoot.

One of them questioned, "I don't know, I've never seen any kind of shrabs or buses like these before."

Another soldier dismissed, "C'mon, lieutenant, you can't just stop and question every shrab, bus, chr-ee, or wampa frut you see!"

The third one said, "Yeah, but something seems weird about that bus' leaves…" He pointed to Crash's shiny device mounted on his noggin. "Oh wait—never mind, it must be that time of the year again. C'mon guys, let's get back on duty…"

Just then, Crash fought a losing battle to keep a chuckle in. The first soldier turned back around to the "shrabs" and exclaimed, "Did I just hear one of those laugh?"

"Nah, you're crazy, man. We need to get back to work or Lord Reiden will have our vertebras."

After the last stone trooper had left earshot of the stealthy trio, Crash carefully let out his laughter. _"…duty…"_

"Wow, I'm guessing this Reiden fellow had to evenly share what little intelligence he gave to these morons," the witchdoctor mask commented.

Bentley announced, "The back of the fortress should be a little farther down this pathway…"

After twenty minutes of tiptoeing around the path, Crash and Bentley noticed the ground getting wetter and sloppier. Soon, they were ankle deep in what looked like muddy, murky, water.

Bentley threw an alarm clock in another direction to lead the goons away from the corner tower entrance. It was then that they took their opportunity to stealthily use Aku's floating ability and levitated up to the tower's peak. They gathered close together and the transparent green ball lifted them high above, unnoticed by the guards. Upon touching down at the summit, Aku Aku had faltered a bit.

"What's the problem, Aku?" Crash asked.

The floating mask looked over at the stone apex in the middle of the tower's roof. It shined with the brilliant green light. Aku answered, "I do believe this is what's causing my power outages. This…light…it's sapping my Mojo."

Bentley's metaphorical light bulb suddenly busted and shattered. "Aha! The source of this light is somehow nullifying Aku Aku's powers. Remember when he couldn't teleport us closer to here? The same thing happened with Orphco!"

Aku suddenly grasped what Bentley was getting at. "So what you're saying is that all we need to do is find the source of this light and deactivate it so we can teleport straight to Reiden?"

Crash cracked his knuckles and said, "Or just blow it up."

Bentley brought the communicating device out and pressed a button labeled "IV." The fourth communicator must've vibrated or paged, allowing for a safe greeting. Suddenly, Bentley's communicator vibrated back, indicating that it was safe for both lines to talk. Jak's voice came through the link: "What's happening?"

Bentley responded, "This is Bentley, and we just made a wild discovery."

Daxter's voice suddenly rang through the line, "Please tell me you found an outhouse."

"Nope, it has something to do with those glowing beams at the tips of the four towers."

Jak said, "Wait—let's get everyone else online so they can hear this." Jak must have looked down on his communicator and got perplexed. "…uh, you do it, Bentley."

"As you wish," Bentely said, sighing, and he paged for the other devices marked with Roman numerals II, III, V, and IV. Fortunately, everyone responded as each corresponding button lit up.

"What's going on, everybody?" replied Goofy from line III.

"Hey, look the thingy says everyone's online," Coco unwittingly replied from line V.

"Keira, here! What's up?" said Keira from line II.

"Is this the right button…no I think that's speaker…" Sora said, trying to figure out how to work it.

Bentley said, "Attention everyone, this is Bentley. Do you all see those glows at the tip of the towers? Those are the source of the reason why Orphco or Aku Aku couldn't bring us any closer to Reiden. If we can deactivate those towers, then we should be able to attack him head-on."

Link's voice sounded through the device line I, "Then deactivate these towers, we shall!"

As everyone on the line began bickering about iffy plan, the turtle spoke loudly over everyone to end the chattering. He cleared his throat and said, "Okay everyone listen up, I want Sly's team to do a little recon on one of these towers, and Coco's team sneak into the fortress's main central building, undercover. There, you three will try to describe the fort's insides to me over the comm link, where I'll do my best to sketch it all out. Then, after you six have returned to the rest of us at our hidden designated position, we'll come up with a plan."

Jak said through the link, "Alright, you heard the man, everyone who isn't with Sly or Coco, report back to…where are we going, Bentley?"

"I saw a bunch of tents earlier around the northern tip of where we first dropped in. You all should see a community right across the open field. It's somewhere beyond the trenches. You'll find it."

"Meet you there," said Keira as she closed her line.

"Okay people, let's get to work!" Coco said.

Over in Coco's, Murray's, and Donald's position, which was on the opposite side of Crash's group, they were all standing next to the main central building, with really, _really,_ bad skeletal soldier disguises. Murray was only wearing a helmet and ribcage (enlarged by his gut), Donald a helmet, shoulder armor, and a rock-jaw bone on his beak, and Coco wore a ribcage, a helmet, a complete rock skull, a rock girdle (which loosely hung to her body), and shoulder armor. They were all equipped with swords and holsters, all weapons properly sheathed.

With grins on their faces, they were ready to infiltrate the giant monster of a citadel. Donald said to no one in particular, "Way ahead of you, Bentley."

* * *

_They've got their task, all they need to do now is follow through._

_A few announcements:  
1. I just made a new, revised avatar. You should totally check it out!  
2. Development of something big relating to this fic is in the works.  
3. The PSPgo looks awesome...  
4. I want one. But it is waaaaaaay too expensive..._

_Tune in for part two as Coco, Murray, and Donald break into the fortress..._


	21. iStealth II

Chapter 21: iStealth, Part Two

All three of their jaws broke the tile flooring as soon as they crossed the threshold into the large, rectangular atrium. There were two landings, the lower one carpeted with red rugs with Chinese symbols, and the walls were littered with fancy armory and pennants in between two torches mounted on the walls. The second landing was pretty much exactly like the first, except with less doors along the walls that led to different rooms and corridors. The rectangular room stretched length-ways in front of the undercover intruders; at the very end of the hall was an open, squarely-spiraled staircase. That must have led to the uppermost part of the central tower, or Reiden's lair. Soldiers poured in and out of the numerous doors, most likely on patrol.

Not done taking even half as mush of the detail in the great room, Murray, Coco, and Donald were cut short by a stone trooper standing in front of them. "Hey! You three! Show me some identification!"

"Uh," Coco began, "we lost ours?"

Suddenly, the suspicious rock soldier burst out laughing and slapped his knee bone. "Just kidding, Jeff! Whew! I got you good. Anyway, Captain said for you and these other fellas to mind the weapons room."

Donald cut in, trying to make his ducky voice sound militant, "We're kind of new—could you tell us the basic layout of this castle in very close detail?"

Murray added, "Feel free to throw in secrets like weak points, and maybe Reiden's greatest fears."

The other soldier said, "Sure, no problem. This place confuses me all the time, too. Alright, you see the upper landing?" He pointed to the left side of the upper level's hallway that stretched out in front of them. "See those two separate doors on the wall? The one closest to us leads to the welding room, where we take all the rocks and metals and melt them down into weapons. They are then carted down the hallway to the room farthest from us, the weapons room. In there, the weapons are sorted out and organized so we guards can have quick access to them. On the opposite side of the upper landing," he pointed to the opposite wall with two other rooms, "are the torturing chambers and the all-you-can-eat-buffet. The latter of the two is the room closest to us. Those many, many rooms on the bottom ground level are just where we take prisoners and out-of-control workers. Like just this morning, there was this crazy guy screaming something about remembering his cause. A real wacko…"

Coco said from under her skull and helmet, "Oh, you mean the guy from two chapters ago?"

"Huh?"

"Never mind, just keep talking. Tell us about that big staircase over there."

"Well," he continued, "it leads up to Reiden's nest. It's kind of a long way up, but you'll get used to it."

"Thank you, um, dude. One more thing, though, can you tell us about those other towers?" Coco asked.

"Oh yeah—this is really gonna blow your mind. Those things are just really big magnets. They repel witchcraft, black magic, supernatural beings from another dimension—"

"Realm," Coco corrected.

"—realm, and Matthew Mcconaughey. Inside those towers is actually quite hollow except for a pedestal with a shard of the Oni-stone perched on it. Yeah, we stole it from the villagers. Why? 'Cause we're awesome, that's why."

Coco suddenly seemed perplexed, "Wait, did you say Oni-stone?"

"Yeah, it's a special stone that can repel all that magic-mojo-voodoo crap."

Coco asked hesitantly, "Um, does that rock have the words Oni-Stone printed on it, kinda looks like somebody wrote on it with a Sharpie?"

"Uh, yeah, that's what it looks like, good guess."

"Wow…"

Donald Duck and Murray had subtly confused expressions but quickly got back in character. Murray said, "Well, ahem, we're gonna go and show Jeff around a bit."

The soldier said, "Okay…wait a minute, I thought you said you guys were new here!"

"Uh, um, er…ya see…" Coco stumbled.

The trooper suddenly slapped his sandy temple in realization. He said, "Oh, that's right! Reverse hazing. New guys always bully the veterans around on their first day. Carry on…" He walked away down the hall.

"The security around here is verging on handicapped," Donald commented. "Well, let's go ahead and take high definition reconnaissance photos for Bentley back at the hideout."

"You mean cheap pics on my camera phone?" Coco simplified.

The duck mage deflated a little and said somberly, "So much for being secret agents…"

Murray consoled, "Don't worry little buddy, you'll be just like me one day…minus the deadly hand-to-hand skills—"

One of the stone troopers from the second floor yelled at them, "UM, ARE YOU GUYS GONNA INFILTRATE OUR FORTRESS, OR JUST KEEP STANDING THERE, TALKING?"

Coco apologized, "Oh, sorry—sorry, let's keep it movin'."

Like nothing just happened, the sneaky trio made their up a nearby staircase up to the second landing. Whilst they walked, Coco brought out the communicator. She highlighted the symbol marked III and sent a request. It vibrated back, signifying that it was safe to speak.

Sly's voice sounded through; it was a little grainy as he said, "Sly here, what's happening?"

"Hey, it's Coco," she whispered. "Have you guys made it to a tower yet? We just uncovered a serious discovery about them."

"Yeah, I'm climbing up the side of one right now."

Over in Sly's position, he was approximately on the tower wall's middle point. He had the communicator fixed to the collar of his blue sweater while he multitasked of speaking into the link and climbing with both hands free (his cane was holstered across his back). He peered downward at Goofy and Crunch, who were keeping guard around the tower's premises. He continued, "What did you guys figure out?"

The young bandicootess's voice sounded through the link, "Well, is you're position by a window of the tower right now?"

Sly looked up and spotted a small sentinel opening near the top of the tower. "Hold on, give me a minute." He ascended higher up the marble tower, grabbing protruding stones to heave his light body up. He couldn't help his bushy tail flut-fluttering in the breeze as he neared closer to the window. He jumped and positioned himself on the sill, crouching under the window's low ridge. He peered down the massive tower, which was illuminated with a lime glow. He brought his right hand up to press a button while he said, "Yeah, now I'm here."

"Okay, now look towards the bottom and tell me what you see…stop smirking, Donald."

Sly tried to see through the blinding light; a small pedestal was barely visible deep in the base of the structure. "I think I see a pedestal of some sort, maybe it's the source."

Coco said, "Good guess, but it's actually a small shard of an important rock that has the power to ward off and deteriorate any magic or, I'm guessing, good mojo."

As the raccoon removed a camera from his sweater, he commented, "You know, this is a lot like working with a female Bentley, and I have to say that I like this manner a whole lot more."

Donald's voice sounded in the background, "Oh, brother."

Obviously very flattered (and flustered), Coco said, "Well—uh—thanks Sly, you sweet-talker, you!"

"Greater benefits, too." Sly zoomed in on the pedestal and snapped a few pictures. He even took snapshots of the windows and marble casing around the tower, and of the tower's base. Next, he climbed to the very top of the tower, where the apex glowed in the middle like a burning spire. He took pictures of that, as well.

He spoke into the comm link, "Well, that just about does it, Coco."

She replied, "Yeah, we're done exploring around, too."

"Alright, then. We'll meet you on the groun—WHOA!"

Sly's loud reaction was of to a speeding arrow darting past him. He quickly spun around, spotting Arrow Guards along the lower sections of the main central building below him. "Uh, oh—time to fly!"

He ran for the edge of the tower and jumped, throwing his legs out in front of him. As he plummeted downward, arrows of all sorts rocketed past him, each nearly ripping the raccoon to shreds. After falling a good distance, he let loose his paraglider, catching himself in the air resistance. He landed with his glider and body still intact and quickly found Crunch and Goofy, who were warding off stone troopers of their own.

Sly called to them, "C'mon, guys, let's ditch these mud stacks!"

Eight of the casual rock soldiers foolishly surrounded Crunch and Goofy. Four of them tried to advance on the large bandicoot, only to have one of them punched in the ribs; he fell to the ground in a sandy pile of dirt, armor, and a sword. Another one tried jumping UP at him, as if that did any good; he, too, became a dusty pile. The other two were lifted up by each massive hand and smashed into each other, leaving crushed skeletons on the ground in front of the muscle-bound bandicoot. Goofy threw his shield, and it boomeranged around, slicing three of them in its path in half. They fell and clanked to the ground, and their lower halves followed suit a few seconds later. One trooper left. He stood there, his brittle bones rattling. He decided to fall backwards and let gravity do the punishing.

But it wasn't over. From one of the doors along the central building, several larger, much more dangerous looking troopers emerged. These soldiers seemed to have much larger, shiny, metallic armors over their chests, legs, and shoulders. They also had thicker helmets with protruding horns out the side. Did I mention that these guys were overall just plain bulkier than the regular soldiers? That they were seven feet tall? They all menacingly dragged large, spiked clubs in their wake, leaving a trail.

Crunch held up his hand and said dismissively, "Uh-uh. I'm out." He was the first one to turn and run in the opposite direction, closely followed by a terrified Goofy and a totally outclassed Sly Cooper. They each felt the ground rattle as the large Paladin Troopers slammed their clubs down, barely missing the raccoon.

They ran a good distance across the ash-filled fields, still not looking back at the seemingly invincible foes that had stopped chasing them a while ago. After they finally slowed down, Sly, Crunch, and Goofy saw three odd looking individuals off in the distance. They were covered in olive-colored material, much like the stone troopers themselves, and were walking in the same direction as Sly and co. After getting close enough, they recognized the strange characters as Coco, Murray, and Donald Duck. They got their attention, joined them, and retold the events that just transpired.

The surviving, heroic group of six followed Bentley's beacon, which led them to a somewhat grassy clearing of the fields. They snuck past a few stupid guards, crossed over the deep trench that Crash, Bentley, and Aku Aku were once in, and made their way across a watery creek. Ahead of them was the encampment of the enslaved villagers; it mainly consisted of a bunch of rows of yellow tents. Near the front, Bentley, Clank, and Daxter came out from one of the tents to greet them.

Bentley congratulated, "Great job, guys, you know, on the 'staying alive' part."

"Yeah, we were beginning to think you guys died, got captured, or got lost back there," Daxter somewhat commended. All six of the returning heroes rolled their eyes.

Clank asked, "Well, were you able to capture photos of the inside Reiden's fortress? That was a very important part of the mission!"

Sly and Coco pulled out their camera devices and handed it to Bentley. Coco stated, "We took pictures of every room in the central building, save Reiden's lair. We couldn't go up there because we weren't level _three_." She said the last word with contempt.

"And I snapped a few photos of one of the towers," added Sly. "Pretty interesting stuff."

Goofy scratched his head and asked, "So, where's my sleepin' quarters?" He yawned and mumbled, "Tired like a mothertucker…"

Donald yawned wildly, and declared, "Me, too!"

Daxter cut in, "Well, I think I saw your buddies go in that tent over…there." He pointed to a tent not too far down the dirt path.

Clank disagreed, "Uh, no, I do believe I saw Sora, Riku, and Kairi settle down the smaller tent over there…" The little robot pointed to the opposite side of the tent Daxter mentioned.

"Whatever," replied the ottsel. "I'm just glad you ain't try'na steal my role as the crackin'-wise little guy. I'm beginning to think this is the start of a beautiful relationship…" Daxter strolled away with Clank, throwing a furry arm around the bot's metal shoulders; Goofy and Donald followed closely behind, obviously beat.

"I'll be eating some peanuts. Hopefully I'll get to smash more heads next time," The Murray said as he retired to the tent closest to them.

Crunch, Coco, Sly, and Bentley regrouped in the Cooper gang's tent, relaying the incident with the large Paladin Troopers. Inside the tent was a bunch of electrical machinery, most likely belonging to Bentley.

"Wow," Bentley responded, "so it IS possible for Reiden to make Stone Troopers of different sizes and strengths…"

"Which means we're going to have to step up our muscle on these foo's," Crunch added.

Coco only said, "Sounds aggressive."

Sly concluded, "Yeah, well, we don't have to worry about any of that right now. I say we catch up on some well deserved rest…hey, where's Jak and Ratchet?"

"They're either keeping guard or keeping guard; those guys are doing all they can to make sure Stone Troops don't discover us," Bentley answered.

Coco looked at the clock on her phone. "Five o'clock already…long day huh?"

"Goin' to bed?" Sly pried.

"Nah, not yet. Goin' go mess with Ratchet."

"Huh? Well, try not to get in his way!"

"Sure, if that's what you call it," Coco said humorously. After that, she darted out the tent's curtain exit, laughing.

Crunch couldn't help but say, "Is THAT what passes for a crush, nowadays? No wonder adults don't want any of us touching."

"Side love stories aside, these are really good pictures! Please allow me to devise up a map of the fortress that shows the major faults and weak points. This might take a while, so rest up, everyone."

* * *

Aku Aku: Greetings, mortals! Time for a bio...

Paladin Trooper

**Age: **None  
**Gender:** None  
**Species: **Igneous Rocks?

These are extra tough, extra whopping, extra ruthless, and extra war-hungry versions of the Stone Troopers. They seem to have an increased intelect and comon sense capacity this time around, but a major weakness is their sluggish movements, so they aren't too difficult to evade. One method of defeating these baddies is for one to slide under their rock legs. While they sluggishly try to pull their oversized clubs out the ground, one could jump up their backs and land on their heads, ending it all with a swift smack upside the head. These bad boys are creations of _CadeXHybrid._


	22. Clichéd I Promise Chapter

Chapter 22: Clichéd "I Promise" Chapter

The night had gently fallen over the makeshift village the heroes were now using as a hideout. The sky was of an aquatic color; the above mountains made everything seem much like a peaceful underwater ecosystem suspended in the atmosphere.

A few of the villagers had started a bonfire a few hours before, the orange flames lighting up the area. Around it sat Jak, Keira, Sora, Kairi, Clank, Riku, Crash, Coco, Ratchet, and many sullen villagers on makeshift benches, all staring at the blaze with dry eyes. Sitting next to Coco on a chopped log, Ratchet asked, "Have any of you ever heard of the Leviathan War?" After receiving silence mixed with intrigued looks, he continued, "Well, a few centuries ago on my home planet Veldin, a horde of massive reptilian swamp creatures called Leviathans decided to migrate there. They plundered homes, devoured crops, broke fences, and squatted on front lawns. Horrible stuff…Then one day, the Veldinian inhabitants—they don't look like me, by the way—decided to rally up with their pitchforks, blunts, torches, and Agents of Doom to drive away those gruesome creatures. They were sick of the outsiders stealing and using their property. For sixty-six weeks, they waged war against the Leviathan population, attacking any scaly scoundrel in sight. The Leviathans attacked back as well, spitting their After making a peace deal with the head Leviathan, the Veldinians were finally able to possess their own land again, forcing the Leviathans migrated elsewhere. But anyway, the true moral, I'm guessing, is for a community to stand up for itself and fight for what's rightfully theirs."

After digesting the Lombax's story, one of the villagers began to say, "But we have no weapons…"

Jak intervened, "No, Ratchet's right. What we do have is our minds, and so far, I think they've been getting us pretty far."

"Yeah," said Keira, leaning next to Jak, "You can't let these stone guys demoralize you; no matter what, there's always a way to beat them."

After a few more moments of silently staring at the fire, Clank decided to commend Ratchet, "Great job on using some big words in the story, Ratchet."

"Gee, thanks."

The orange flames danced on the robot's metal as quietly giggled to himself. The flames faded into illuminated coals, sparkling, and barely lighting up the circle.

Riku stood up from his log, stretched, and said, "Well, I'm going to bed, if that's okay with _you._" He shot a quick look at Jak and walked into a nearby tent that held a slumbering Donald and Goofy. Many of the other villagers followed suit, dispersing to different tents around the area.

Jak muttered to no one in particular, "Man, that kid's a real pain in the—"

"As soon as he warms up to your type of authority, he'll come around," Sora said. "He's always had a problem with authority."

Jak stood up in front of Sora and said, "Yeah, well tell your friend to either deal with it—or face me."

Sora stood up as well, a little fast, and said defensively, "Well maybe you just like bullying people around."

Standing about a head above him, Jak glared down at the brown haired boy, cerulean eye to cerulean eye. From the seat next to Sora, Kairi thought anxiously, _Please don't start anything…_Keira thought the same, except the words "please don't" were replaced by "as if they're gonna."

After a moment of hostility, glares turned to humorous grins and clenched fists met one another. Shaking the boy's hand, Jak said, laughing a bit, "Thought you were serious, for a moment."

Sora responded, "Like I said, _he's _the one with the problem with authority."

Kairi stood up with the rest and said, "Geeze, you boys are so feral. Goodnight!"

"Yeah, let's rest up," Jak agreed and went off to his tent with the sleeping ottsel, Keira following closely behind. "See you guys in the morning," he called right after sticking his head out the tent's curtains.

Still sitting on the log, Crash said, "HEY! Why am I just now getting mentioned?"

"Who knows, let's go to bed. G'night Ratchet," Coco said as she and Crash strolled to an empty tent. (Crash nearly tore down the fabric of the tent when his Vocabulizer got caught on the top of the curtains.)

"Well," Ratchet yawned, speaking to Sora and Kairi, "you guys should get some sleep as well, because somethin' tells me Bentley's gonna have us running all over the place tommorow." And with that, Clank suddenly shrank his limbs and neck until he became almost backpack-like, and his green eyes went dark. The red light above his head stayed on, though; he was in sleep-mode. Ratchet picked him and carried him off to their own tent. "Goodnight!" he called back at them.

Sora said, "Alright, bedtime, Kairi. Where are you sleepin'?"

"Actually, I was wondering if we could go for a walk," answered Kairi.

"Sure, I guess…"

"Well, do you wanna go, or not?" Kairi asked demandingly.

"Ye-yeah, let's go on a nature hike!" Sora said overenthusiastically.

After quarreling for a full five minutes about it, they finally started strolling together through the neighborhood of makeshift homes. "Anything you wanted to talk about, Kairi?" Sora asked sincerely.

"Actually, yes. What do you think of all this Precursor, Twilight Realm stuff? Doesn't it seem a little iffy to you?"

"At first, I trusted them about as much as I would've trusted Xemnas, but lately they seem like they're actually trying to do some good."

"But don't you think there's a hidden agenda beneath all that?" Kairi asked. "We might be getting fooled."

"Relax, Kairi. If anything does happen, I'm in control, remember?" Sora said with a genuine smile. "I'll protect you."

Kairi gazed into his truthful eyes and said, "Promise?"

"Swear."

"That's not a promise."

"Uh, yes it is."

"Swear sounds like you wanna hurt somebody."

"Okay, I PROMISE."

"Promise 'what'?"

"I promise to always protect you, Kairi, through the thick and thin."

Kairi smiled, apparently satisfied. "Thanks, Sora." She wrapped her arms around him, and he embraced her as well.

Suddenly, Sora stopped holding so tightly, and turned his head to the nearby bushes and trees that separated the encampment from the rest of the mountain valley.

"What is it, Sora?" Kairi asked, a little simmered.

"We're being watched. Why don't you stop hiding, whoever and wherever you are?"

A voice: "I'm not hiding." Link appeared from behind a near tree, arms crossed, his face hidden by darkness.

"Oh, it's you," Sora said scornfully. "What are you, eavesdropping?" (Kairi noticed Sora held a little tighter)

Link stepped forward into the moonlight to reveal a smirk of some sort. With his light British accent, he said, "I may have heard a few things. Some sickeningly cute things. Some funny things, maybe."

"Really? What's so _funny_?" Sora said with more scorn.

Link answered, "A promise that you'd protect her is what's _funny. _Good thing you didn't promise her that before this morning, _comrade_."

"Oh really, _buddy_, why's that?" (Sora squeezed tighter this time)

"Well, _mate, _I do recall rescuing her from a hail of arrows, single-handedly. I didn't remember seeing _you _anywhere near_._"

(Kairi couldn't breathe at this point) "Hey, no one asked you for your help—!"

Kairi rasped, "_Let me go, please!" _As soon as Sora freed her from his grasp, she turned on the boy and said harshly, "Well, if we didn't GET his help, I'd be dead, Sora!"

Sora was suddenly caught off guard. He staggered and stammered, "Oh—uh, I meant…well, you know—I, um…"

Obviously, the tenderness between her and Sora had vanished. "Maybe you should actually start thanking him instead of antagonizing him."

Link crept up behind Kairi, as she was now facing Sora with sharp eyes and crossed arms, and said, "You value her life, don't you Zora?"

"It's SORA! And what the heck are you doing out here, anyway? Spying?" asked an irritated Sora.

"For your information, I came out here after Jak and Ratchet got off duty. Crunch and I are on guard now."

"Well, good for you. Have fun, 'cause Kairi and I are hittin' the hay." As he turned in the opposite direction, Sora signaled for Kairi to come with him.

Kairi turned to the green warrior on duty and said, "Yeah, he's right. It's really late. See ya later."

He smiled at her and said, "Sleep tight."

Sora and Kairi wordlessly went back into the heart of the encampment. Drawing nearer to their tents, Sora decided to say, "You know, I didn't really mean that I didn't want him to save you."

"I know Sora, it's fine."

"Because, you know, I wouldn't let my pride or anything—you know—"

"Sora, it's O.K."

"—'cause you're like my best friend and all…"

Kairi smacked a hand over his running mouth. She gave him a look that said, "_SHUT-UP_, _I get it!_" After she removed her hand, Sora took the opportune moment to ask…

"…Soooooo, you bunkin' with Riku, Goofy, Donald, and I tonight?"

Kairi sighed heavily and answered, "Just stay on your side of the tent."

"Yes ma'am," Sora plainly answered, yet a certain gland in his brain screamed, "Yahoo!"

Meanwhile, as the two disappeared into the tent, in the adjacent tent, Crash, Coco, and Aku Aku were still awake.

"Man I'm just glad Day One is over," Crash said.

"Me too," replied Coco. "I gotta admit it was more fun than I thought it would be, though."

"Huh? No, I'm talking about having this giant thing bolted to my brain! Man, I can't wait till tomorrow's over."

"Shallow as always, Crash," Aku remarked. He floated above a thin pillow in the corner of the tent. "Come on, children, try to get to sleep. Can't have you faltering on the mission, now."

Crash and Coco both responded in unison, "Yes, Aku Aku."

Each in their own makeshift sleeping bag, they lay in the darkness of the tent. Four hours of sleep later, a large red mammal suddenly entered their tent. Without waking the others, it slunk over to the slumbering Crash Bandicoot. The red beast took a massive hand and repeatedly slapped the him across the face a couple hundred times.

Crash stirred awake, "…is someone there?"

Crunch said, "Yes, it's me, fool! Your turn to get out there!"

Crash rapidly shook his face and stood up. "Oh, right! Did you have any trouble, Crunch?"

"Nah, nothin' good. Had more fun watching grass grow."

"Alright, sounds easy enough. I'll be back at dawn!"

Crash lay flat on his back on the dirty ground, snoring wildly. The sun was just cracking above the mountains, shedding light on the bandicoot's face. As he eased his eyes open, he saw a glowing ball rapidly descending to the earth. Scratch that; it was rapidly plummeting toward HIM. Crash's eyes exploded open; he started panicking at the falling inferno, not knowing whether or not to move or try to swallow it. Due to the Law of Conservation of MOVE IDIOT, he swiftly rolled to the side a couple hundred times. The inferno erupted in the spot he had previously occupied with a twelve meter exploding diameter. Even after rolling so many times, Crash's fur still went crispy. Small fires burned certain parts of the bushy area, not harming the encampment, though.

After coughing up burnt grass, Crash mumbled, "Had more fun watching grass grow, he said..."

* * *

_I got a million ways to get it. Choose One. Now double your money to make it stack-WE'RE ON TO THE NEXT ONE! ON TO THE NEXT ONE! ON TO THE NEXT ONE! ON TO THE-eh, so I stole that from Jay-Z. Sue me._

_Where did that fire blast come from? The next chapter, of course._


	23. Draksin and Reiden

Chapter 23: Draksin and Reiden

In Reiden's throne room, or should I say, "Up in Ray-Ray's crib," he generated lava from his arms into a large rock-built bowl of some sort. The lava flushed down a rock-made tube into the fortress's lower central building, and all the way into the welding room. This must've been Reiden's many "contributions."

A black mist erupted behind him, and he immediately stopped his lava-making and turned around. The mist took the form of a body, the one of the man named Draksin.

Reiden tried to sound humble, "Oh, D-Man, what's up…man?"

Behind his sunglasses, Draksin glared. "I see you've made a fitting castle for yourself and your army. Hmph. Dirtier than I imagined, but nonetheless fort-like."

"Yes, I thank you…oh great Draksin, your majesty," Reiden said, completely sarcastic. "This all you came here for, to check up on me?"

"No. I require a piece of that Oni-Stone you so wastefully carry around."

"Really? Say the magic word…"

Draksin removed his sunglasses to reveal yellow eyes. "I'll kill you."

"Try again, those are WORDS-ZAH."

"Give me…a shard…NOW."

"You're not getting this whole 'magic word' thing, are you?"

Draksin raised his left in the air, and a glowing purple ball materialized in his palm. It suddenly got larger and larger, expanding to the size of an elephant. "Hand it over or I decimate these mountains, including your army and your slaves."

"O-kee…" Reiden said, blue faced. "You ain't playin' around…" He reached into the inner pockets of his jacket and pulled out a sparkly green shard. "Have fun."

The bomb deteriorated, and Draksin took the shard and carefully placed it in his jacket pocket. "Thank you."

"Whatever."

In another black mist, Draksin dematerialized and left Reiden's throne room. Out of pure anger, Reiden formed a fireball and chunked it out the nearby window. He thought, _Stupid jerk, trying to kill everything and everyone I own…almost lost my fortress. _He angrily chucked five more fire balls, all in random directions.

_

* * *

_

_Yeah, it's a short one, but it kept your attention, eh?_

_Onward to Bentley's new plan...**Tower Defense Matadors**!_


	24. Tower Defense Matadors

_Here's Crunch with an educational statement! If you have no idea what Kingdom Hearts is or know nothing of its story or characters, then you are a FOOL! And on the WRONG site! I mean seriously, it has the leading number of stories in the Games category! No excuses. Read along, now..._

Chapter 24: Tower Defense Matadors

"Attention, please, attention! Is everyone looking? Good…" Bentley began his speech to the whole team; all eighteen of the heroes had gotten up just after dawn and secretly gathered in the Cooper gang's tent. Bentley was delivering his trademark slideshow of the plan he drew together the night before. First slide showed a picture of one of the four towers that surrounded Reiden's fortress. "Alright, people, these are our targets." Next slide showed a shard of the Oni-stone perched on a pedestal inside a tower, emitting a faint green light. "We need to destroy all four of these to eliminate the fort's magic defenses. Once that's done, I do believe that there is a fifth stone hidden somewhere in Reiden's throne room, but we'll worry about that later." He changed the slide to display pictures of stone guards stationed at the base of a tower. He drew X's on them with a laser pointer as he said, "No doubt they've stepped up the military force after what happened yesterday. We need to eliminate these guys as silently as possible, and from what I hear, they're coming in bigger and nastier." Next, he briefly displayed each tower and said, "I find that the fewer groups out this time will cause less casualties and run-ins with Reiden's guards. So, I'll be assigning Ratchet's group to take care the southernmost tower, Sora's group to deal with the western tower, Sly's team the east, and Jak's the north. Let's move, people."

"Hey, that's MY line!" Jak said, irritated.

* * *

All four teams decided to head out immediately that morning, the young sky and foggy air slappin' them in the face. Ratchet, Clank, and Keira didn't have to travel too far to reach the southern tower; it was the one that Crash, Bentley, and Aku Aku had landed on the previous day. They decided to play it safe and traverse the trench that lead to it. When they arrived, they noticed the vast field that lay between them and the tower. Surprisingly, they hadn't spotted a single trooper stationed near the tower's base.

"What, are they inviting us in?" Ratchet questioned.

Keira peered towards the tower's peak. "Wait—now I see."

Clank asked from behind Ratchet, "See what?"

She pointed up and answered, "It looks like they've got sentinels stationed INSIDE the towers!"

"No way," said Ratchet. "I'd better tell Bentley about this." He took out the communicating device, but before he even pressed a button, it started vibrating. The bewildered Lombax answered it and Bentley himself talked through the gizmo:

"_Yeah, I heard you guys! This might cause a problem if you're not careful!"_

Ratchet asked, "Can I just blow up the tower and take 'em down?"

"_No; that'll attract too much attention and endanger the others. How many of them are up there?"_

Ratchet, Keira, and Clank peered up over the trench's edge at the tower. They spotted four small windows, each with aiming crossbows jutting out. Keira answered Bentley, "Looks like about four."

"_Alright then, you'll just have to find a way around them…I'll be sure to alert the others!"_

After Ratchet hung up, Clank proposed, "I declare we use the Fluxor Rifle weapon on those goons."

Ratchet said, "No good, I haven't had that gun for three adventures. And the Alpha Disruptor is a bit too messy for this job."

"Well, we have to find some way of taking them out," Keira said. "We'll surely be detected if we try and run on them. What can we do?"

A light bulb burst to life above Ratchet's head. The voltage was too high, so the glass shattered, leaving shards on Ratchet's…wait, haven't I done this gag before? Anyway, Ratchet said slyly, "Yeah, you're right. Our large selves will surely be detected if WE cross the field. We need someone small and difficult to notice from far away. Someone preferably metallic…"

Clank pretended to not get the picture. He glanced off somewhere else and mumbled something.

"Clank…" Keira said.

He tried his best to whistle.

"Clank!" Ratchet shouted.

"Okay, fine!" Clank gave in. "I will sneak in the tower and infiltrate the guards."

"Thanks buddy, we knew we could count on you!" appreciated Ratchet.

To obscure the obvious glare from his metal, Clank took some leaves and plastered them all about his body. He then proceeded to walk out the trench very casually, swinging his arms and taking relaxed steps.

Up above in the tower's sentinel windows, one of the crossbow soldiers observed the moving pile of green. He said, "Hey guys, look at that little green thing movin' around down there." His other squad members left their posts to see what he was seeing. "Should I shoot it?"

"Are you insane?" exclaimed one of the other soldiers. "It's probably a little harmless animal."

"But—"

"We don't harm nature, Yuan!"

Another soldier intervened, "Well actually, Lord Reiden sort of disturbed this village's landscape just to create us. It's only probable that he himself harmed, what, like, sixty or seventy percent of the wildlife living here."

The nature-freak soldier stared furiously at the intervening soldier and said, "You see, this is why you're on bathroom duty, 'cause you over generalize stuff. Now everyone, back to work!"

Clank had already reached the tower's base and found a small opening to crawl through. After entering the tower, he brushed the leaves off his body. The inside was brightly lit by the green beacon shining on the nearby pedestal. The light reflected on his metal body, drowning out his green eye lights. The little bot glanced high up at the ceiling; it looked like makeshift decks had just been built out of wood at the top to support the four watching troopers. "This is going to be easy," Clank thought, at first, sarcastically, but then he noticed a rope hanging from the wooden support from up above and a well-placed matchbox sitting next to the pedestal.

First thing's first; he used the matches from the matchbox to set fire to the rope. He then snatched the stone from the pedestal and made his leave.

Meanwhile, the nature-freak guard said, "…you smell something burning?"

Another one retorted. "Well actually, we don't have olfactory—"

"The rope's on fire!" interrupted another soldier. They looked at the smoke rising from the thin rope's base, flames rising rapidly.

With the fire rising to the wooden deck, the nature-freak soldier glanced at the trooper called Yuan and said, "…I've always hated you."

(1)The deck plummeted down like a meteoric inferno, and crashed with a loud _Ker-Blam!_

Clank watched from the outside as the dust and ash gusted from the hole he crawled out of. He also heard terrified screams and yells for help, but that didn't matter.

He ran back to Ratchet and Keira. They were now standing above the trench, congratulating him on his daring mission. "Good work, Clank!" said Ratchet.

Clank handed Keira the stone shard and said, "I thought you might like to see—this."

Keira looked at the thing in her palm and analyzed, "Yeah, Clank—great job!"

"I overheard you talking about some kind of energy found in your world that you have been studying. My sensors indicate that this stone is carrying an energy closely related to it."

"Oh, you mean Eco!" She closed her eyes and the shard began glowing in her hand. After four seconds, it stopped glowing, turned dark purple, and blew away like dust in the wind. "Wow, it worked…."

"Whoa…how'd you do that?" Ratchet asked, highly perplexed.

"Destructive Eco Channeling. It comes with being a Sage."

"Awesome."

Clank analyzed, "Well then that means we should tell the others of her useful power. That way, we can get rid of those shards for good."

* * *

"Man, I thought this would be fun," Riku complained. "Geeze—I'm so hungry. We should have eaten breakfast first."

Sora, walking in the center of the trio, suddenly had an idea to cure Riku's ailing stomach. He reached into the one-strap backpack slung across his back and took out three Fiber One bars. He handed one each to Riku and Kairi, who both looked at the strange food awkwardly.

Riku asked, "Sora, what is this stuff?"

"I don't know," he responded, "it's just some junk my mom gave me."

Everyone paused on their journey as Riku and Sora both unwrapped the foil from their bars and took large bites of the chocolate-cluster bar. Riku responded positively, "Oh, man, this stuff is so good!"

"Yeah," Sora agreed. "I could eat this stuff all day. Why aren't you eating yours, Kairi?"

Riku invoked, "Yeah, it's super tasty!"

Kairi said, "No, I already ate. I'll save mine for later." She placed hers in her pocket.

Sora tried to sway her, "C'mon, I've got, like, a whole bag full of them!"

Riku teased with a mouthful, "What, are you going anorexic on us?"

Sora played along, "I sure hope not, Kairi, 'cause this fiber stuff is so good…"

The redhead gave them an irresistible glare and said, "Shut-up! Do you guys even know what fiber's for?"

Sora thought about it, and in the end, came up blank. "Nope, no idea."

Riku came up with a brilliant idea. "Hey, I have a brilliant idea! Let's K.G.B. it!"

"Riku, you're a genius!" Sora commented. "Use your phone, my battery's kinda low."

"No prob'." Riku pulled out his phone while he continued to munch on the Fiber One bar. While Sora watched, he opened a new text message, and he typed on the slide-out keyboard, _"What does fiber do for people?"_ After sending the message, Riku said, "And now we wait."

Kairi stood with her hand on her hip, rolling her eyes, and not believing how much time they were wasting. In fact, they were supposed to be walking across the vast land that stretched between the camp and the western tower. Earlier that morning, the trio had all decided to dress differently than the usual black, pink, and yellow. Sora now had on long, black sweatpants with a red T-shirt and usual oversized shoes. Kairi dressed in a long sleeved blue shirt under a white T, blue jeans, and white running shoes. Riku decided to wear a tight, gray muscle shirt and black three-quarter shorts with black high-topped shoes. Sora was carrying their only bag of supplies, but Riku and Kairi trusted him with it anyway. They had halted their quest in the middle of the open, ash-filled field, and were still out the vicinity of the sentinel troopers Bentley had notified about.

Finally, Riku said, "Hey! They answered!" With Sora watching, Riku opened the text message and read aloud, "Hmm, let's see…_Fiber is a food nutrient found in many whole wheat products. Its main function is to help loosen…"_

Sora couldn't stop himself from saying, "Oh, that's gross!"

Kairi said, "Now you see? So can we get going?"

Riku laughed and said, "It also says that a lot of old people consume it. Next time I'm at Grandma's house…"

Sora took another bite from the snack, "I really don't care what it does—it still tastes yummy!"

After that intermission, Sora, Riku, and Kairi finally started moving again. As they walked, Kairi decided to ask, "Can either of you teach me how to take out the Keyblade one more time?"

Riku plainly said to Sora, "Handle it."

"Well, Kairi, first you have to take your hand out like this," Sora instructed as they walked. He held out his right hand as if he were attempting to push back a freight train. Kairi did the same. "Good! Now pretend to summon a weapon of Light in your hand." His Ultima flashed in his hand.

Kairi was obviously confused on this part. She asked, "How the heck am I supposed to do that?"

"Um….okay try imagining a super cool sword right there!"

Kairi tried. "It's not working!" she complained.

"Okay…just summon the Keyblade from within you!"

Kairi shot back, "If I knew how to do that, I wouldn't need a lesson from…" Out of nowhere, her rose-like Keyblade flashed into reality. "Oh…amazing."

"And don't forget, to put away your Keyblade, you just let go of all it's internal and external feeling like so…" His Ultima flashed away, but he summoned it again. Kairi did the same, her Keyblade flashing in and out of existence until she left the weapon in her hand like Sora.

Riku commended, "Good job, it only took forty seconds."

Sora suddenly halted everyone and said, "Wait, guys, I think we're getting too close to the tower!"

Kairi asked, "Are you sure?"

Just then, they heard a sharp wind-tearing sound. Sora looked up and slashed away an incoming arrow, disabling the projectile. "Yeah, I'm sure!"

Sora ran toward a pile of boulders, Riku and Kairi following suit. They dove behind the rocks as arrows reigned all over. Summoning his Way to the Dawn, Riku asked, "Plan?"

"Yeah," answered Sora. "Just follow my lead!"

He immediately leapt up and began charging towards the tower's base. Riku and Kairi reluctantly did the same, slashing at arrows that threatened to pierce them.

They made it alive to the tower's base wall, completely out of the sentinels' view. Riku said, "This is much better than getting shot at. Is there another part to your plan, Sora?"

"Uh, sure. I'll summon…Peter Pan!" Sora removed a small green gem the size of a cookie from his pants' pocket. It instantly glowed and a boy in a green tunic and green pants appeared alongside a small glowing fairy. They both floated in the air. The boy straightened his cap and said:

"How's it goin', Sora? Looks like your friend ain't a bad guy anymore."

Peter Pan was obviously talking about Riku. Sora cut to the chase—he said frantically, "Peter, we need you to get us up this tower!"

With Tinker Bell fluttering about, Peter said excitedly, "You mean…FLY?!"

Kairi said in awe, "No way…you weren't—"

Sora finished for her, "Lying? I told you, Kairi, I did fly!"

Tinker Bell fluttered around the trio and sprinkled golden dust on them. Riku asked awkwardly, "Is she giving us a golden shower?"

Peter ignored Riku's silly comment and said, "Now, this stuff will only work for a few minutes, so fly wisely!"

After a second or two, Sora, Riku, and Kairi finally started floating upward in a slow and mystical fashion. Kairi felt uneasy at her sudden lightness. "Um, how do I get down?"

Sora answered back excitedly, "You don't. We're going up!" He zoomed higher up into the air while calling back down, "See you later, Peter and Tinker Bell!"

"Give us something challenging next time, Sora!" Peter called up to the flying boy as he and Tinker Bell vanished back to their world.

Riku straightened his body, but still didn't move any faster. He suddenly had a notion and tried flapping his arms. That didn't work either. "Sora, how the heck did you get that high?" the silver haired boy called up.

Kairi suddenly zoomed past Riku's low position and met up with Sora. "It's easy Riku! Just believe!"

Frustrated, Riku shouted, "Oh, don't give me that Pixie-Crap! Tell me how!"

Halfway up the tower, Sora and Kairi laughed. The brown haired boy said, "Try loosening up your body. Don't be so tense. Now, just think about gracefully floating upward, as if your body's lighter than air."

Finally, after a few hysterical tries, Riku finally rocketed up with Sora and Kairi. Together, they flew up to the tower's sentinel windows, where a few confused guards stood watching them float in midair.

One of the watch guards staring at Sora said, "These are some ugly birds."

Sora responded by jamming the tip of his Ultima Keyblade into the rock soldier's skull, piercing both his metal helmet and his face. The other three guards were caught off guard by this; Riku and Kairi literally pulled them off guard, out through the sentinel windows by their crossbows, letting the Stone Troopers fall to their inanimate death.

Sora lunged through the window and stood on the wooden deck, eyeballing the lone soldier who stood, frightened, next to the opposite window. He said, shaking, "Hey, man, I didn't even want to kill you guys! You just got in the way of my arrows!"

From the ground, the Stone Trooper's skull could be seen plummeting from the tower's high windows.

Riku entered the tower with Sora, but still floated above the deck. He said, "I'll go get the Oni-stone shard. And then I'll be the one to give it to Keira. And then maybe I'll tell her how hot she is." He slashed a hole in the wooden deck and flew downward.

Sora exited the tower and looked for Kairi. He looked up and saw her flying in circles. He warned her, "Don't fly too close to the sun, Icarus!"

Kairi almost ignored him. Instead, she replied, "This is so fun!" Suddenly, she faltered. The dust was wearing off. "Uh-oh, Sora, I'm falling!" Now she was plunging, ground-bound.

Sora sighed, tightened the strap of his backpack, and said, "Looks like it's Sora-Man to the rescue."

He tore through the air, high above the tower's apex. The morning sun almost drowned out Kairi's falling (and flailing) body. Sora swiftly caught her around the waist and slowly lowered her down to the tower's flat top. Within her tight clasp, Sora said, "Bet Link won't do this."

When they descended past the tower's rooftop, they noticed the large pointed apex wasn't giving off its green glow. Riku had done his job, obviously.

They kept on descending until they hit the ground, where Riku stood waiting. "It's about time! Now that we have the shard, let's take it back to Keira and meet back at the hideout, already! I could use a few hours in the sauna, a nice massage, and maybe a snow cone…"

* * *

Sly Cooper, Crunch Bandicoot, and Goofy had already adeptly swiped the Oni-stone shard and quietly taken out the sentinel troopers, so what could be standing in their way to regroup back at the HQ? Big hulkin' Paladin Troopers, that's what!

All three of them stood backed against the tower's base, completely surrounded by the monstrous Paladins. Crunch shrieked frightfully, "I thought we already had our turn with these foo's!"

Goofy said, "I thought we were extra quiet this time! What happened?!"

Sly thought and said, "Well, there's only one other explanation: one of the others must have set the guard OFF!"

Crunch said, "Ah crud, I guess we have to fight!" He put the shard deep into his pocket and walked up to a Paladin, who stood easily four feet higher than him. "Put 'em up!"

The Paladin raised his giant club and slammed it down on the bandicoot. Crunch caught the painfully spiky club in his hands, and used every ounce of his strength to hold it off. Instead of letting the club smash his face, Crunch summoned the strength to yank it away from the Paladin. He wielded the extremely heavy weapon and swung sideways at the Paladin's stone head, completely shattering it on impact.

Crunch looked at his new weapon with pride and said, "Yeah! Now we're cookin' with fire!"

This bought Sly some time to investigate why they were getting attacked by a horde of Paladins. He took out his communicating device and cycled through which other comm link belonged to the most foolish and susceptible group…

"Sora, Riku, Kairi, are you there?"

"_Oh, yeah—what's up Cooper?" _answered Sora's voice.

"Please tell me it wasn't you guys who set off the Stone Troopers!"

"_Oh…yeah, we may have been spotted and shot at."_

"Great, because now we've got burly Paladins on our butts!"

"_Oh…sorry…fault…help…" _The connection was fading in and out.

Sly just responded, "Whatever, just stay out of trouble!"

Goofy told Sly, "C'mon, we need to follow Crunch! It's the only way to make it back to the hideout!"

Sly glanced at Crunch and noticed he had already taken down two more Paladins. He was battling club-to-club with another already. Sly took this opportunity to take a photo of the hefty troopers so the others can see what they have to deal with…

Goofy suddenly noticed a little trend. "Sly, look. They're only attacking Crunch. That must be because HE has the shard, not us!"

"Hey, you're right! In that case, I have a plan…" Sly whispered something to Goofy.

Crunch continued to struggle with the attacking Paladins. He slammed his club, bang after bang, but it seemed the monsters' skills were growing each second with every Paladin he crushed. Crunch panted and gasped for air, and ultimately wound up kneeling in front of the Paladins' might. He said with heavy eyelids, "Well, I've lived a good life. Just not in the face, please."

Just as one of the Paladins aimed to strike his face, Sly and Goofy dashed out of nowhere and stood between him and the downed bandicoot. Sly hit the ground with the bottom of his cane, and a great gust of smoke enshrouded the area. The Paladins mechanically coughed and wheezed (their voices were very beastly) while Sly and Goofy dragged Crunch out the fray, making their getaway.

After a few yards of dragging, Crunch finally caught his bearings and ran alongside the two. "Man, that was a close shave." He was still clutching the club. "These things are wicked, but they sure get the job done."

Goofy responded, "I don't know about either of you, but I'm gettin' bushed from being chased away by them Palla-dem fellers!"

Sly agreed, "Me too. I think I just might take the day off tomorrow. Anyway, let's figure out where Keira and the others are…"

* * *

"…Careful, Link…Careful, now…Careful, Link…Careful, Link, buddy…Careful, Link…Careful, now…" Daxter taunted.

The Hero of Hyrule was standing readily with his bow and arrow out. He aimed the feathered arrow back past his chin, the rope bending his Hero's Bow. Daxter was whispering in Link's ear, obviously trying to distract him from hitting his target. Link seemed to be drowning his voice out.

They were hiding in a small bushy area, completely concealed from the sentinels. Daxter started saying, "…Any day, now."

Finally, Link let go of the arrow. It cut through the air and snagged the Stone Trooper he was aiming at right in the face. There was only one soldier left at this point, who was apparently unaware of the three defeated soldiers hanging with their arms out the windows beside him.

Jak said casually, "Ah, crud. Okay, that's two points for you, and one for me. But I'm about to score one more, so move out of the way."

Jak now stood where Link was previously aiming. He had turned off the laser on his Blaster so he could prove his shooting skills. Daxter said, "C'mon, Jak, you gotta beat this guy!" He was talking about Link.

Jak centered the reticule of his Morph-Gun on the last unsuspecting soldier who obliviously watched out his window. After a moment or two, Jak fired his Blaster, and it…well…blasted the trooper.

Daxter shrieked, "YES!"

Jak said gleefully, "Alright! The score's two-to-two!"

Link said, "Well, anyone can pull a trigger. But not bad with the mechanics, Jak."

Daxter insulted, "Yeah, yeah, learn to kick a kickball."

Link smirked. "Well, Daxter, if you're so skilled, why don't you go retrieve the shard?"

Jak egged on, "Yeah, Dax, make us proud."

Daxter said, "Real classy. Pick on the handsome guy."

Daxter summoned up the courage to run across the one hundred-percent safe field. When he reached the other side, he found a small hole in the tower's wall he could crawl through. He said sincerely, "Man, this is going to be easy!" He squeezed his weasel body through the gap. When he finally made it inside, he stared heavily at the green illumination emitting from the pedestal. In a squirrel's fashion, he climbed up the tall pedestal in a spiral motion. When he reached the peak, he became entranced by the shard's great glow. He cartoonishly shook his head and snatched the shard.

After darting out the exit, Daxter waltzed across the field and said conceitedly, "Man, you guys really underestimate my ninja skills. You gotta start givin' me impossible tasks. Maybe those will stall me for a second or two, but I doubt it."

Jak and Link were standing in front of their hiding spot obviously unthreatened by anything. Jak said, "Good work, but I timed you."

Link said, "Three minutes, twelve seconds."

Daxter shrugged, "Ninja work takes time."

Over in the distance, Link could make out multiple figures walking towards them. "Hey, who are they?"

Jak squinted and said, "They don't look like enemies."

When they got close enough, they could count six people. They finally recognized them as Ratchet, little Clank, Keira, Crunch, Goofy, and Sly.

Daxter yelled to them in the distance, "Good to see you hacks still alive!"

Ratchet yelled back, "Good to see you still have your yap-trap."

As the group of six joined them, Jak walked up to Keira and said, "I guess you want the rock."

"Plus something else," she said as they embraced for a kiss. A second into the kiss, Jak and Keira noticed something funny…particularly fuzzy. Keira moved away from Jak's face to see a furry orange foot gripped over Jak's mouth. It was Daxter, of course who claimed to be climbing upward to Jak's shoulder.

"Excuse me, pardon me!" Daxter said as he reached Jak's armored shoulder. He held a peaceful smirk.

"How your foot reached all the way to my mouth is beyond me," Jak said, annoyed. He turned back to Keira, "Anyway, you want this, don't you?" Daxter reached out and handed her the shard.

"Sir, yes, sir." She took the shard and did her Destructive Eco Channeling trick.

Ratchet said, "Oh, man, that gets cooler every time!"

Link asked, "Have you met up with Kairi and her friends?"

Keira answered, "No, but I told them to wait out in front of the encampment for us."

Goofy said, "I sure hope they didn't get caught by guards."

"Or we might have to run in to more Paladins," added Sly.

"Yeah, that too, a-hiyuck!"

Jak said, "Well, I guess that's our cue to get going."

As they began walking, a large shadow engulfed them. Up in the noon sky, they could see a large, black, dragon-shaped figure eclipsing the day's sun. They noticed the figure getting bigger as the black shadow got smaller; it was descending.

Goofy exclaimed, "We're about to be pancakes, fellers!"

All nine of them quickly scooted out the way of the large creature's touchdown. Once it finally landed with a loud and abrupt thud, everyone recognized the thing as a gigantic, reptilian dragon. Its red scales moved snake-like as it craned its neck. Its spiked, red tail fluttered like a flag in slow motion; it stood on all fours with claws dug deep into the earth. The massive beast outstretched its monstrous wings, making it look incredibly huge.

One thing that was very noticeable about this reptilian creature was the short spiky hair mounted on its head. It was black and looked like it had been gelled up in thousands of little spokes. Suddenly, the beast spoke:

"These? These are the tricks who've been rattlin' my kingdom? Man, I was expectin' some Cyclopes or minotaur or something…"

In a few convulsions, the red dragon morphed into a single man in a red cloak. He stood only ten feet away from the group's leader, Jak, who maintained a defensive position. He said, "Are you…Reiden?"

The man answered back, "That's Mister Emperor Lord Reiden to you fools!"

Jak pounded his fist, "Good, then we can settle this now."

"Can I speak first? Dang!" Reiden complained. "So, where you chumps come from? The magic land of Heroville? Let me guess, Orphco and them other idiots brought you all here so you can fight their battle? Man, that's low."

Keira shot back, "You mean like how you use those rock-baddies to do your dirty work?"

He responded, "Don't worry—I'll handle you all personally. The lackeys are for keeping the village idiots in check."

Link asked politely, "Are you willing to fight now?"

Reiden crossed his arms, as if thinking. He said, "Mmm…yeah, sure, why not?"

To Jak's reluctance, Link exploded from his position next to him. Jak yelled after him, "Link, no!"

Link charged ahead of the group with his left hand grasped on the hilt of the sword slung on his back. He shouted to no one in particular, "I'll get this over with!"

After coming within a couple of meters of Reiden, Link drew his sword and made a vertical slash at his body. Like lightning, Reiden ripped out a blade from each arm sleeve; they ripped through his coat sleeves and spun on an apparatus attached to his wrists. It kind of looked like a mouse trap mechanism that sprung through his sleeves. The blades were now perfectly parallel to the rest of his arms; they were no bigger than half of Link's Master Sword. He brought them up in front of his head and crossed them into an X to defend himself from Link's attack. As the metal clashed against metal, Reiden said, "Bad idea."

The evil emperor gave Link a swift kick in his stomach, but left him alone after that. Link tumbled backwards to the ground, clutching his abdomen in pain. "I'll tell you what—get better at fighting, and I won't torch those sorry villagers' last refuge. Sound good?"

Sly and Ratchet rushed to Link's aide. Ratchet shouted to Reiden, "Get lost! I've got a gun that'll blow you to Solana!"

Reiden responded with, "Oh, really? Does it look like this?" He brought out his hand to charge up a firestorm blast. His hand glowed for half a second before he fired it at the Lombax.

Using his brain, Sly dove out the way. Ratchet, who didn't dive, received a body blast of contact-combustion. Ratchet flew backwards at least ten feet. Fortunately, his armor sustained its integrity and hadn't melted.

Reiden said, impressed, "Man! That cat's got metal! Oh well, I'll just have to kill him next time. See you pushovers later, haters!"

Goofy suddenly said, "Wait, you mean you're not mad?"

Reiden furrowed his brow as he asked, "Mad for what? I actually enjoy hurting people!"

The royal court knight asked, "You're not mad for what we did?"

"What the flip did you guys do?"

Jak leapt over behind Goofy and covered the dog-man's mouth. Jak quickly said, "You know—mad for busting up some of your soldier guys yesterday?"

"Why would I be mad for that? They have no life. And neither will any of you." Reiden ascended up in the air and transformed into his dragon state. He said, "Kill ya later," and flew off towards his high-up tower.

With Ratchet and Link struggling to get to their feet, Daxter said, "Well that guy was a little rude, don't you think?"

* * *

Back at the hideout, Aku Aku was at unrest.

He floated with his eyes shut in a tent. As Coco entered, he sensed she was at unrest as well. He said, "What is it, my child?"

Coco staggered for a moment, and said, "Last night, I felt a strange force while I slept."

Aku opened his eyes and said lowly, "As did I. I think we may have felt the same the force."

Coco gave a surprised look. "You did too? Aku, it felt so…so…"

"Dark," he answered for her. "That, my child, was a warped and twisted version of Mojo. I felt that if it were to come in contact with us, this whole village would have been swallowed up."

Coco whispered, "Wow…"

"This energy was so concentrated in one large faction of Mojo; it would have no doubt killed us in our sleep."

"Could it have been Reiden?"

The witchdoctor closed his eyes again. "There is no way for me to discern. But whatever that power was, it would be best for all of you to stay as far away from it as possible."

"Yes, Aku." Coco tilted her head as she said, "That's amazing. I had no idea that Mojo could be used that way. Can you utilize it in other ways?"

Aku said, "Of course, Mojo bishop used all kinds of Mojo back in my day. However, they do take time to learn and master. In fact, Keira is learning to master a type of life energy called Eco. Same as Mojo, really."

Coco asked, "Well, can you teach Crash and I how to physically utilize Mojo?"

The patterns on the floating mask formed a hearty smile. "Of course I can. Just be prepared to exercise every node of your soul."

"Cool!"

Crash smacked open the tent's curtain entrance. The orange bandicoot next to a very angry duck said, "Coco, you gotta try this Chinese chicken they're roasting out here! It's so juicy!"

Donald Offended Duck said, "That's my people you're eating, you know! At least show some restraint!"

Coco turned back to Aku. "I'll go eat lunch. Maybe later you can give us our first lesson…?"

"In time, my child," said Aku Aku. "In time."

* * *

_Did someone say "Apex Chapter?" That one was pretty long. So let's call it Apex #1, partly because it's the heros' and villain's first meeting._

_But what will happen when Reiden finally figures out that our heroes have disabled his repel towers? Don't miss the explosive chapter, Reiden's Retaliation!_


	25. Reiden's Retaliation

Chapter 25: Reiden's Retaliation

Reiden gave one last convulsion and was back to his human self. He was standing in a wide veranda connected to his high-up throne room. It overlooked the entire mountain valley, including a part of the pathetic little encampment his soldiers set up for his slave workers. Reiden leaned on the banister, glaring at the little campsite. It took every fiber of his being to not completely obliterate the whole thing…

Wait, hadn't he feared the obliteration of his workers the night before? No, that was different. Draksin was going to destroy his entire empire, of course. All Reiden wanted to do was demolish all those worthless souls squatting on his royal land…

But who cares, he thought. He had finally found the foolish rebels who were causing the ruckus the other day. He'll crush them, and that'll be that. But where could those idiots have come from? Certainly they weren't all from this world. That blue haired girl and blonde guy had ears as long as batons. Orphco and his tricks brought them here, no doubt. Which means those rebellious fools had to travel a short distance to actually get here; the Oni-stone shards should have kept them at bay…wait a minute…

"THE SHARDS!" Reiden shrieked, suddenly noticing the absence of green glows that were supposed to be emitting from the towers. From his position on the veranda, he could only see two towers, which didn't glow. He shouted, "NO!"

Reiden spun around and ran into his throne room's interior, darting across the room to the other veranda. Much to his dismay, he found that the other two towers were not giving off the shard's light, either. "No, they didn't—"

"Sir," said a captain from inside the throne room, "is there anything wrong?"

"Yeah there's something wrong! You idiots don't know how to guard a freakin' castle!" Reiden scolded. Instead of dismantling the frightened guard, he took in a deep breath and sighed. "…So that's what they were doing. Must have taken them all morning. So much effort. That's too bad, 'cause now I'm gonna torch all their meddlin' skulls!"

Very casually, the Captain Stone Trooper said, "Okay…do you want any assistance?"

Reiden thought for a moment, and then said, "Actually, yeah. Assemble Formation Xi Q, Lou Chan."

With a confused look, the captain said, "Um, that's for garbage day."

"Oh, then assemble Formation Yang Gai Pan!"

The captain soldier said, "Close, but that's for Beat It dance routines."

Reiden snapped his fingers in realization as he said, "Oh right, right. I want Formation Yuang Kai Fe!"

"Yuang Kai Fe, as you wish, Lord Reiden!" The captain saluted and darted down the spiral staircase.

Reiden went back to being serious as he turned back to his veranda, eyeballing the puny village. He said tensely, "I will tear you all apart…"

"Alright, that's four shards destroyed, one step closer to kicking that moron's butt!" Sora said excitedly. "This'll be a piece of cake."

Jak said, "Maybe we shouldn't underestimate this guy. He's no doubt a whole lot stronger than his minions."

"Still not saying much."

Sitting on a makeshift bench across from Sora, Link said, "Yes, he's no ordinary warlord."

Sitting next to Coco again, Ratchet said, "Let's just say we've have had a firsthand account of Reiden's power."

Coco laughed and said, "Suck it up, loser," giving him a friendly shove.

Jak said, "Just for everyone's information, Reiden is sure to discover his shards missing, hence the disappearance of the green glows. He may suspect us."

It was still in the daytime, a few minutes before twilight. The whole team sat around in the camp circle with some of the other villagers. In the center was a roast of chickens over a fire. Donald eyeballed the holocaust with much distaste. Crash however, who sat on log next to Ratchet and Coco, was tearing into a brown and crispy chicken leg. Donald sat right next to him…which is unfortunate because Crash made extremely noisy sounds whenever he chewed and bit into the bird.

Coco sprang up from her seat. She skipped over to the feasting Crash and said, "Hey, big brother! Let me see if it's time to take that thing off yet…"

"Okay, but don't make me speechless again. I love talking!"

Jak commented, "Yeah, you're like an oversized version of Daxter."

Coco removed a small covering in the back of Crash's Vocabulizer, revealing a tick-meter. From the left, it said, "Primitively Stupid," "Just Plain Stupid," "Moderately Stupid," and, "Normal." The ticker was on the border between Moderately Stupid and Normal. Coco said to Crash, "Hey, you're almost normal! How 'bout we take this thing off for tonight and wear it tomorrow?"

"Sweet, I get to scratch my head!" Crash exclaimed as his sister unscrewed the huge thing off his head. After removing it, she took her seat next to Ratchet again.

Sitting next to Jem, Len, and an elderly villager, Bentley said, "Good work today, everybody. We're a step closer to our goal, and we're still alive. That's always good."

An elderly woman said to Bentley, "We thank you strangers very much, but why?"

Caught off guard, Bentley asked, "Um, why what?"

Sitting on broken log, Jem advised, "Please, Madam Saoki, maybe we shouldn't ask…"

Bentley held up his hand and said, "By all means, ask us anything you need."

She went on: "Why…why do you all choose to help us? What exactly is your agenda? Do you plan to defeat Reiden and help reclaim our land, or are you planning to have it for yourself?"

Bentley assured, "No ma'am, we're one hundred-percent legit when we say that we're doing this to defeat Reiden and give you your village back."

"But for what cause?"

Bentley stopped to think. After going silent for six seconds, Murray commented, "Yeah, I guess we did kind of show up here without any explanation."

Coco added, "We're kind of here on a mission."

Goofy said, "A pretty important mission."

Link said, "One that decides the fate of your world."

"And unfortunately for me," Crash added in between bites, "trial-and-error ain't an option."

Aku Aku spoke up, "You see, Reiden is the first of five super-strong fiends who landed on this planet and are eventually planning to overrule us. Either that, or kill every living thing."

Daxter said, "And we were randomly selected by furless, bigwig Precursors to come and help protect this planet. Why we're doing it—'cause we're heroes, of course!"

Sora added, "And it's up to us to defend our world."

Donald said a bit spitefully, "Yeah, because no one likes havin' their people viciously killed and eaten."

Madam Saoki said, "How very valiant of you all…you must have come a long way. Seriously, where did you strange outsiders come from?"

Jem scratched at his black hair. "Madam, I really don't think that's any of our bus—"

"Quiet, Jem!" She hit the man upside his head with a chicken bone. "I'm old and I've got questions! Probably won't remember the answers tomorrow, anyway…"

Jem's green eyes watered from the painful blow. "Ow, sorry, Madam Saoki!" Riku, Sora, Daxter, and Goofy had a hard time stifling their laughter.

Rubbing the sore spot, Jem stood up and told everyone, "I'll go check into guard duty."

The sun began falling under the mountains' horizon. Riku stretched and yawned. Standing, he said to everyone, "Well, I'm not staying up late again tonight, so see you all next mission brief."

Kairi stood up as well, followed by Sora, Donald, and Goofy, saying, "We're right behind you, Riku."

As the three Keybladers stood up and left for the canal, Jak suddenly went still. He waited for the trio's footsteps to fade away. Then, he asked anyone listening, "Do you guys hear something?"

Ratchet said, "Yeah…yeah, I do hear something. It sounds kinda like thunder!"

Keira agreed, "I hear it too…but there aren't any clouds. I think it's coming from over…there!" She pointed in the direction that led to Reiden's almighty fortress.

Suddenly, Jem came back to the camp circle at a fast run. He said, "It looks like Reiden is making an advance! Get all the women and elders into the largest tents!"

As a stampede of frightened villagers ensued, Daxter quickly climbed a nearby dead tree, jumping from charred branch to branch. He looked over the tents to see a dusty blur off in the distance. At the base of the dust were what looked like almost forty or fifty dark figures rushing in a cavalry; they were headed straight for the encampment.

The freaked ottsel said slowly, "You won't believe this…"

Jak, Keira, Daxter, Crunch, Murray, Ratchet, Coco, Sly, Link, Bentley, and a few of the villagers quickly got up and rushed to the front of the encampment. Crash Bandicoot, however remained seated.

Crash asked aloud to any of the remaining villagers, "Should I join them or not? If I stay, then I can enjoy this chicken wholeheartedly without Donald givin' me looks…as if this decision was really complicated!" Crash ripped off a huge piece of the roasted meat.

The elderly woman started at the tent, but turned around to see Crash still feeding himself. She said, "Seems you're not very honorable. You sit here and fatten yourself up while your friends go off to fight."

Crash responded high-spiritedly, "What's the use of fighting if you're on an empty stomach?" He looked down at his messy hands, then at the dormant Clank-bot. Crash decided to rub away his greasy fingers on the sleeping robot's metal body.

Len stood up to go and join Jak and the others, but her father stopped her. "No Len—I want you in that tent with the others, now."

The young girl sighed, and said, "Okay, fine." Len walked with a slump towards the haven tent.

Meanwhile, the whole group of heroes were now staring in awe at the approaching cavalry. The convoy consisted of Stone Troopers mounted on skeletal horses, rushing at them at full speed. The horses were saddled with black leather, clashing with their greenish rock color. Jem gasped, "My God."

With a quick one-liner, Daxter said, "Gee, do ya think he knows it was us?"

"Aaaaah…" Riku said, embracing the water's warm temperature. "Haven't felt this in a while…"

Sora, lounging on one side of the riverbank, said, "Hey, don't soak up all the comfortableness!"

Donald, for once, looked like a natural duck, swimming peacefully with his arms tucked behind him. Suddenly, Goofy sprang up from the little pond's shallow depths, overturning the white duck.

After spitting and coughing up water, Donald sputtered, "HEY! QUIT PLAYIN' AROUND!"

Goofy laughed a goofy laugh, and said, "Aw, lighten up, Donald!" The black dog-man splashed the wet duck. "A-hiyuck!"

"That's it, this means WAR!"

Riku sat back on a lone side of the warm pond. He said, "Just make sure you guys don't splash me."

Sora stretched and leaned back again. He said, "Ah, this is good." Then he yelled at the top of his lungs over a nearby hill, "HEY, HOW YA DOIN' OVER THERE, KAIRI?"

Over on the other side of the hill, far away from the rest of the bathers, Kairi washed alone. Obviously a little ticked, she shouted back, "JUST STAY ON YOUR SIDE OF THE CANAL!"

Back on the boys' side, Riku suggested, "You know, we should really get another female ally before Kairi severely injures all of us from all that bottled-up anger."

Sora, Donald, and Goofy thought about it for a minute, but said, "Mmm…nah."

On the girl's side, Kairi shouted, "YOU GUYS BETTER NOT BE TALKING ABOUT ME!"

Sora: "WE'RE NOT, WE'RE TALKING ABOUT…!"

Goofy: "CAPUCCINOES!"

Kairi muttered to herself, "Whatever…hey guys, I'm going over to the waterfall!"

Riku: "WHAT'CHU SAY?"

Kairi screamed louder, "I'M GOING TO THE WATERFALL!" She miserably trekked her way to the little falls that sprung from a higher plateau.

Sora: "WHAT ABOUT THE WATERFALLS?"

Annoyed, she screamed back: "AS IN DON'T LOOK OVER HERE! Morons…"

Back at the boys' side, Riku said quitely, "Attitude…"

Sora reclined even lower into his watery seat as he said, "Nothing can ruin this moment, not even an impulsive attack from Reiden and his troops…"

Suddenly, a loud crash and screams were heard from the distant encampment. Riku looked over his shoulder to see smoke rising from some of the faraway tents. "Oh no…"

The four boys quickly leapt up from the pond and speedily clothed. They weren't completely dry: Sora had wet patches all over his red shirt; Riku's wet hair dripped onto his tank-top; Donald's feathers were comically ruffled; Goofy, however, had done that thing where wet dogs shake in a spiral motion and soaked everyone else within a twenty foot radius.

As Sora was about to start up the dirt path that led to the encampment under attack, Riku said, "Wait! What about Kairi?"

"Eh…she'll be fine as long as she stays here," said Sora.

Riku raised an eyebrow and asked, "What, are you too nervous to go over there?"

Flustered, Sora shot back, "NO…c'mon, let's just go help the villagers. They need us!"

Riku surrendered. "Yeah, you're probably right. She can take care of herself. Let's go!"

The group of four took off down the trail, leaving Kairi behind.

When they arrived, they found the previously quiet encampment in complete disarray. Men with rocks tried to hold off oncoming soldiers on horseback, dodging sword slashes and fire arrows left and right. They noticed Jak and Ratchet defending a few tents, which must have contained the women and elderly. Crunch and Murray were tearing it up in the battlefield, slamming their powerful fists into the soldiers, making them fall off their skeletal steeds. Goofy quickly ran from his group of four to join them, spinning around with his shield like spin-top. Sly and Bentley were protecting the perimeter of another tent that contained civilians.

Suddenly, Lord Reiden himself popped out from behind a horseman, and got down in a crouched position. He stretched out his arms and fire erupted from both hands. He stood up again, and with a vengeful glare, he shot a blast from each hand, hitting the tent Jak and Ratchet were protecting directly.

Sora, Riku, and Donald found their cue to go to the burning tent's aide. The trio ran directly in front of the tent, surprising Jak and Ratchet.

Ratchet shouted over the chaos, "Please tell me you have a plan to put that out!"

"Of course we do!" Sora assured. With Donald in the middle, the trio pointed their Ultima, Save the Queen, and Way to the Dawn weapons at the fire threatening to incinerate everyone inside. They shouted in unison:

"Blizzara!"

An icy storm erupted from their Keyblades, ultimately putting out the blaze. Icicles and frost matted the tent's frontal area.

"Good work!" Jak cheered.

Donald said, "The battle ain't over, yet!"

They looked over their shoulders to see Reiden charging at Sly and Bentley, arm-blades out and at the ready. Sly brought up his cane horizontally above his head to match the oncoming strike from the angry emperor. Sly proceeded to leap upwards, avoiding Reiden's ground sweep with his other blade. While in the air, Sly tried slashing downward on the villain's head, but Reiden's bare fist caught the raccoon's stomach, bringing him down harshly to the unforgiving ground. Knowing Bentley would try to protect Sly, Reiden blasted the ground in front of the disabled turtle. Bentley yelped as he flew backwards, his reptillain body. Reiden looked back down at the struggling raccoon. He raised his right arm to stab him with the blade while he held him down with his left.

Out of nowhere, a meatless bone struck through the air and knocked Reiden upside his head. "OW! Sonuva…"

Crash Bandicoot stood in front of the evil emperor, eyeing him with a battle-ready stare. "Yep, that was me."

Reiden spat, "RAT! Go back to your hole!"

"Sorry, that's a few thousand miles away." The daring bandicoot cracked his knuckles and said, "Is it alright if I hang around your place?"

Reiden slowly backed off Sly Cooper as he said, "I guess it's time to call Animal Control."

Crash asked tensely, "Are you gonna fight or make jokes all day?"

Reiden spun his blades around the metal fulcrums on his wrists. He snapped his arms straight, making the sharp blades snap straight along his forearms as well. With one final flick, the blades snapped from along his forearms to directly over the back of his hands, making a complete one hundred eighty degree shift. (He kind of looked like Deadpool, now.)

"Let's go then." The evil Lord Reiden charged at full speed at the defensive bandicoot, threatening to dice him.

Just then and there, Crash realized that he just might get his orange self killed if he didn't move. Reiden struck thrice, once vertically, and twice horizontally. Crash swayed to his right to dodge the vertical strike, squatted to his knees to dodge the first sideways slash, and crazily bent backwards to evade the second. To follow up, he jumped and roundhouse kicked Reiden across the face, giving the emperor face-time with Crash's size ten and a half. Reiden fell backwards, but didn't hit the ground; he was a little dazed, but that ended with a heavy punch in his face. This time, he hit the ground HARD, but he only allowed himself a half second to touch the ground, as he sprang up with a backflip.

Wiping blood from his mouth, Reiden said, "Damn, you're good! Your skills are almost as hot as mine."

In a fighting stance, Crash said, "Thanks, the Bandicoot bloodline is honored." The orange marsupial felt light-bodied, having that thing taken off his head now. He felt something else…something dormant…

"But now, my friend, it's time to get serious…" Reiden removed his red cloak, revealing what looked like a black muscle shirt; it was actually a thin layer of armor that showed off his upper body muscles. His bare arms revealed the mechanisms he used to rotate and spin the connected swords.

Crash only uttered two sounds: "Uh-oh." By now, he had realized the rest of the fighting had slowed to a halt; everyone, heroes and Stone Troopers included, had stopped to watch their fight. Some of the people in the tent that Reiden had tried torching had evacuated and were now watching Crash and Reiden in awe. Coco and Aku Aku proudly watched their boy fight toe-to-toe with the evil Lord Reiden.

Jak, Ratchet, Sora, Riku, Goofy, and Donald stood close together, keeping one eye on any nearby Stone Troopers. Suddenly, Sora remembered something.

"Oh. My. Gosh. I forgot about Kairi!"

Donald said, "We'll handle things here! Nothin' much goin' on, anyway!"

Sora nodded. "Right!" The brown haired Keyblader took off down the dirt path again, leaving the decisive battle between Crash Bandicoot and Reiden Long.

When Sora arrived at the canal, he sucked up his nerve and went to Kairi's side. Instead of seeing a more-or-less dressed Kairi, there was no one. He looked down and around and over to the falls, but no redhead. He noticed her towel was gone too, so she must've gotten up and left. (He avoided taking note of the presence of her day clothes on the rocks.)

Sora noticed some thickets off ahead that lay in between the canal and the encampment; a shortcut, it was. He dashed into them, calling her name, "Kairi! Are you here?"

He summoned Ultima and slashed away at shrubs that got in his way. "Kairi? Kairi? Kai…oh."

He twisted around a large tree to find Link and Kairi. The green tunic clad hero had his Master Sword withdrawn in a heavily defensive position. She had her flower-like Keyblade withdrawn also, but with one hand clutching it and the other holding the top of her towel wrapped around her body. They were both facing away from each other, as if they had just gotten done fighting off enemies.

Sora tried to hide his embarrassment. "Kairi—I found you!"

Kairi did not. _"Omigod—Sora!"_ She quickly hid behind a wide tree, flustered.

"Okay…so what…what happened here?" Sora's voice cracked on the last word. He was obviously holding back some loathing.

Link answered calmly, "After I saw that you arrived at the camp without her, I decided to go look for her." After seeing the P.O.'ed look Sora gave him, he added, "Don't worry, Zora, she was toweled when I found her. Then, we ran into a few soldiers that followed me here. Then you came. Then she hid behind the tree. That's when you asked what happened, and I said—"

"Kairi, are you okay?"

From behind the tree, she answered, "Yeah I'm fine, Sora! Link helped me. Fighting with one hand is pretty hard."

Sora said, "Look, I'm sorry, I know we made a promise that I'm supposed to protect you and—it's just that there was the attack—and you were—you know, and we had to—"

Kairi laughed out loud. "No big deal, Sora! I actually prefer your choice over the other one. That would've been weird, huh?"

"Ah-heh-heh…this is kinda weird right now, isn't it?" Sora grinned.

Kairi scolded, "I can hear you grinning, ya'know!"

With his back turned to both of them, Link walked away towards the encampment, briskly sheathing his sword inside the case latched on his back. Without a look back, he hissed "Your welcome."

Back at the fight, Reiden was intent on having a Bandicoot shish kabob for dinner. With his dual arm-blades, he slashed in all directions, hoping for blood.

Reiden spun three-sixty degrees with blades outstretched, threatening to shred the furry hero. To avoid these incoming assaults, Crash rolled till he reached Reiden's left side. He propped himself back up and swept the overlord's feet right out from underneath him; Reiden landed flat on his back. In the blink of an eye, he threw his weight to his arms, then back to his legs, resulting in him jumping back on his feet. "My, my, where did you learn to fight like this?"

Joking, Crash answered, "Saw it on television." Crash tightened his fighting stance. "Why don't you stop holding back and show me you're real strength."

"Okey-dokey—"

The evil emperor suddenly took a defensive stance; the ground began shaking, causing fear in every bystander. Crash stood his ground as Reiden adopted a visible red and black aura that erupted from his body. With an explosion of atmospheric dust, Lord Reiden was now literally on fire. The flames flicked and flashed on the silhouette of his body; his blades harbored flames as well. He stood with his feet lined together and arms out at an angle. (If you've seen the cover for Assassin's Creed II, then this should sound familiar.)

Reiden opened his eyes, now wide and red, starring directly at Crash's green ones. He said to the impressed bandicoot, "How's this?"

Crash stared. "Um…scary?"

Reiden levitated in the air and dashed at Crash, flames dancing all about. Everyone watched as Crash stood frozen, mentally urging him to move away, or stay in place, depending what team they were on. Coco screamed, "Crash, MOVE!"

"Wah-huh?" Crash uttered as a flaming knee slammed into the side of his face. "YEE-OW!" he shrieked as smoke rose from his burned fur. In a red and black aura, Reiden seemingly dissolved into the air and rematerialized behind the bandicoot. He gave the bandicoot a heavy kick to the lower back, dematerialized, rematerialized in front of him, raised his arm to stab the poor, suffering Crash in his neck, and—

"_What do you think you're doing?"_

Reiden froze in his levitated position, the blade's tip barely grazing Crash's fur. Reiden cursed out loud, "Oh, crap."

Through immense pain, Crash said, "Oh, thank goodness. I thought I was the only one hearing that voice!"

Sly said, "I heard it too!"

Apparently, the whole camp heard, including the newcomer Link. People and rock soldiers alike clamored amongst each other, almost acting like minor acquaintances. A Stone trooper without a lower body said from the ground, "Geeze that scared the dust outta me!"

A villager holding a long tree branch said, "Yeah, that was pretty startling! And if you'll excuse me…" The villager slammed the tip of his branch into the soldier's face.

This voice was female and British; it sounded very angry. _"You know Draksin would kill you, and then take his anger out on us if you used your powers a day early!"_

Reiden communicated back to the disembodied voice, "Sorry—must've slipped my mind."

"_Don't let it happen again."_

After a short silence, Crash asked, "Did she hang up? I don't think she likes you very much."

Reiden reverted back to his normal, flameless form. He whistled loud enough for his whole outfit of troops to hear and shouted, "Che Dao Bing!" Instantly his troopers began evacuating the encampment, heading for the fortress on their skeletal horses. "This was fun, Orange. Kill you and your friends later, okay?"

He flew up high into the air, morphing into his dragon form in the process. As he flew away into the orange sun, Crash asked, "Does anyone have any skin cream? I got a feeling these burns are gonna hurt like crazy in the morning!"

Suddenly, a voice sounded from an overturned wheelchair: "Hey, uh…somebody wanna give me a good tilt…or something? The hydraulics system is a bit shoddy today."

* * *

Aku Aku: Whew, finally, a bio...or two

Cavalry Troopers

These types of fodder are just like ordinary Stone Troopers, except they're on horseback. When they ride on these creepy steeds, they become more agile and swift with their attacks. They can either shoot arrows or wield swords while skillfully riding circles around their enemies. These bad boys are a creation of _CadeXHybrid._

Reiden (Flame Form)

**Age: **?

**Gender:** Male

**Species: **Human/Dragon Shapeshifter

This form was developed by Draksin after some rigorous Mojo training. Although he isn't a giant dragon, Reiden's movements become hyper-fast, and he has the ability to materialize into fire and teleport all around his enemies, delivering devastating, fire-powered blows. A red and black aura erupts all around Reiden's body like flames as he attacks his prey. Reiden's second form was created (and drawn) by _CadeXHybrid_.

_Looks like they've survived an offensive from the evil overlord. But how long can they last against Reiden's attacks? Maybe a new tactic is in order…_

_And what's up with Link? Maybe that'll be revealed in the next chapter, Call off Duty (not a typo)!_


	26. Call off Duty (sic)

Chapter 26: Call off Duty (not a typo)

Nightfall, an hour after Reiden's attack…

Team leader…music to Crash Bandicoot's ears. Ever since his demonstration of strength and skill against Reiden Long an hour ago, his fellow teammates have been giving him serious respect. In fact, on that very night, Crash was leading his own five-man assault straight to Reiden's throne. After the attack, all eighteen of the heroes had come to a unanimous decision to launch an unpredictable counterattack on the overlord's stronghold. Bentley had been very brief with his surprisingly prepared slideshow, as the heroes AND the villagers were now itching to destroy Reiden and his sovereignty once and for all.

Crash was grouped with Link, Murray, Jem, and Sage, a fellow villager and friend of Jem's. Sage, who wielded a sword and shield he had acquired from a fallen Stone Trooper, started a monologue for anyone listening, "Oh, yeah! Released from his cage, the great and grisly Sage will free his vengeful rage! No one can gauge Sage's rage, 'cuz he's on a completely different page! He's way above your age! Gonna rescue his daughter Paige…and…what else rhymes with Sage?"

Murray thought and said, "You didn't say 'wage', did you?"

Jem taunted, "He won't be able to fit 'minimum' in there."

Crash laughed and mumbled, "Ha, ha, he, he…minimum wage. That's rich!"

The dark landscape was gloomily lit orange from the few torches lined up on the fortress wall. The group of five was standing on one side of the main central building of Reiden's fort (because if you think about it, the rectangular building is divided into four sides by the four towers). Link equipped his Hawkeye, which was actually a mask in the shape of a bird's face. He put the mask up to his face, using them like binoculars. Link scanned every window and opening for a trooper on guard. He took note of the presence of only two troopers out of the seven windows available, and they were only chatting with each other, not guarding a thing.

As he Link removed the Hawkeye, Crash asked, "Do you see anybody up there?"

"Yes," Link answered, "but only two troopers. They're not paying us any mind."

"Good," Crash said. He radioed in another group via communicating device. "Coco, do you see troopers guarding on your side?"

Coco's voice radioed back, _"No, sir. They're playing hop-scotch."_

"Okay, good…what's that word for telling you to go ahead?"

"_Advance?"_

"Yeah, that's the one! Ahem, you may advance, Team Clanker."

"_Okay, Team Crossbow."_

Crash switched the link on his communicating device. "Team Crazy Hair, have you been spotted?"

"_No—we resent being called that—there aren't any guards on our side," _said Sora.

"Advance! Okay, Team Dead Bird…"

"_Nope, this is still Team Crazy Hair," _said Sora again.

"Whoops, my bad." Crash switched the communicator to IV. "Team Dead Bird, are you there?"

Donald's angry voice said, _"Yeah, we're standing by!"_

"Any bad guys?"

"_No, they left for ham sandwiches a long time ago."_

"Well, Advance! You sure it wasn't turkey?"

Donald hung up on the other line.

Crash pocketed the comm link and said, "It's time to advance!"

Cracking his knuckles, Murray said, "Watch closely as The Murray demolishes every evildoer that stands in his righteous path!"

Sage began to say, "And I, too, shall destroy—"

"Hey, nuh-uh! You see, there's only room for one egotistical hero in this squad," interrupted the hippo.

Crash, Link, Murray, Jem, and Sage ran up to the wall's door, which was a miniature drawbridge of sorts. With a couple of hefty punches, Murray tore open a sizable hole big enough for them to walk through. The first thing that they noticed when they walked in was the dark shadow that enveloped them. They assault team simultaneously glanced up to see the bottom of a not-so far up landing structured against the wall they had just passed through. They noticed how the above landing circled around to two other walls, excluding a wall that held the front entrance (the one that Coco, Donald, and Murray came in through the previous day). The interior was highly illuminated with large torches on all four gray, rocky walls.

As they progressed deeper into the large room, they noticed an absence of guards. Crash called out, "Hello? Anybody here?"

Jem warned, "Maybe demanding the enemies' presence isn't such a good idea."

Out from the other doors, which weren't the drawbridge type, the other teams arrived. Coco, Sly, Bentley, Ratchet, and Clank entered from the fort's right side wall; Donald, Goofy, Riku, Crunch, and Aku Aku passed through the fort's left wall door; Jak, Daxter, Keira, Sora, and Kairi entered through the front door.

Ratchet said, "Sure is big in here…but where is everybody?"

Jak said quietly, "Wait…do you guys hear that?"

The four groups of five quieted down and instantly heard the clatter of silverware and the laughter of men coming from the upper landing. Suddenly, Coco said, "Oh yeah, that's their all-you-can-eat buffet. They must be partying!"

Crash said, "Well, not for long! My team and Team Crazy Hair will go confront Reiden in his throne room. Team Clanker and Dead Bird will go through the dungeons to free the children and other prisoners. Then, after I give the signal—"

Jem interrupted, "Looks like that part of the plan will have to wait!" He pointed to two Paladin Troopers standing on the upper landing. They snarled at the twenty intruders and jumped over the landing's railing, making the floor shake with every rough landing.

Crash said, "You guys go rescue the children! We'll handle these goons!"

Donald, Goofy, Riku, Sly, Bentley, Ratchet, Clank, Crunch, and Aku Aku all followed behind Coco Bandicoot as she led the way down to the dungeons through one of the many doors.

Standing in front of Jem, Sage, Link, Murray, Jak, Daxter, Sora, Keira, and Kairi, the brave bandicoot said, "Okay…how do we beat these things again?"

One of the Paladins dashed at Crash and slammed a backhand into the bandicoot, sending him to the wall. The others leapt out the way so as not to come in contact with the marsupial-projectile. With cracks and dents, Crash stuck to the wall upside-down.

Sora looked back at the dazed Crash and answered, "Not like that!"

* * *

Coco ran through the dark underground dungeons, the nine others following closely behind. She said, "They're right around this corner! Soon, every imprisoned child and villager will be free!"

Riku panted as he ran, "That's great…almost there…"

Crunch ran up from behind the tired teen, "You ain't tired already, are you? We're just gettin' started!"

Riku said defensively, "It's been a…crazy day…okay?"

Meanwhile, in a large cellar, the young girl known as Lil and many other small children dully played with small trinkets. A brown haired boy complained, "I swear, if I see another McDonald's Pokemon toy, I'm going to throw up."

From a metal chute that jutted out from a wall, a horde of McDonald's toys spewed out, landing in a pile of other cheap trinkets. As the toys hit the already large pile, the children in the room groaned.

Some of the tots had already gone insane; they started stacking piles of related trinkets together. A black haired girl insanely mumbled to her self as she madly grouped the toys together, "Let's see, we've got red train…blue car…red pony…blue pony…red Pikachu…yellow Pikachu…red glasses…oh my gosh, where are the pink glasses? Oh here they are…"

Lil spun around to the girl and snapped, "HEY! You stole my pink glasses!"

The other girl said, "DID NOT!" She stuck her tongue out at Lil.

Lil pounced over to tackle her. "YOU STUPID THIEF!"

Another boy walked over and said nonchalantly, "You know, we just got about fifteen more pink glasses from the new pile."

The thieving girl leapt up and screamed, "MINE!"

Lil laid back forlornly, wondering when she'd be freed from this dark pit. Suddenly, every child heard a voice calling from the hall, and it sounded friendly.

"Don't worry kids, we're coming to save you!" Coco yelled. When the ten heroes arrived next to the cellar's locked door, Riku stood forth and summoned his Keyblade. With a beam of light, the dungeon doors burst open.

He peered inside staring at the mess of toys and chaos. He saw children crouched next to the wall, insanely mumbling to themselves, and others trying to organize the toys by color, size, category, Pokemon-type, number of wheels, and so on. Riku whispered to himself, "Harsh."

Goofy moved ahead of Riku and tried to get all the children's attention by saying, "Uh—we're here to rescue all you young'ns, so let's follow me in a single-file line…"

The thirty five children stampeded out the cellar, leaving their insanity behind. They trampled over the royal court knight and into the torch-lit hallway. Lil and three other children jumped up to hug Riku, thinking of him as some sort of silver-haired savior.

Sly cartoonishly spun around in circles as a little girl pulled on his fluffy ringtail. "Hey! Knock it off!" he said to her as they both twirled.

A boy said, "Whoa, look at the cool cyborg-turtle!"

Bentley responded, "I prefer the term 'normal impaired.'"

Donald Duck defensively held out his wand, trying to keep the oncoming kids at bay. He said, "Stay back! I know I'm a talking duck! Don't get _any_ closer!"

A few girls _awed_ and said, "Look at the fuzzy kitty and his robot lunch box!"

Coco giggled as Ratchet rolled his eyes . She said to the girls, "That's what I thought when I first saw them."

Some children were jumping upwards either to grab Aku, who playfully floated higher and lower, or to touch Crunch's bulging biceps. The red-furred bandicoot happily flexed both his arms and said, "This is what happens after you eat all your broccolis and collard greens!"

Coco tried calming them all down. "Okay, um, kiddies. We need you all to be very quiet while we're busting you out of here, okay? So let's start the quiet game…" she came to a whisper, "…_now_."

* * *

"YEEE-OOOW!" Murray muffled a screamed from behind his hands as he was knocked back by a Paladin's spiky club. He was trying to keep his volume down.

Link rolled out of the way as a club from the other beast crashed down. With a battle cry, Link slashed his Master Sword down at the Paladin's arm; it only cut halfway. Link brought his boot up to the beast's deeply cut stone arm and yanked his sword free. He cursed under his breath as the Paladin showed no pain.

With his Hylian Shield in his right hand and Master Sword in his left, Link sprinted up the great beast's rocky arm, leapt up to its stone shoulders, and gave it a horizontal slash across the face. THAT slash went through, severing the Paladin's marble face from the nose up.

Jak sprinted over to the defeated Paladin and skillfully caught the severed piece of the Paladin's face. He said in a cross between a whisper and a yell, "Link! Try to be quieter, or we'll be discovered by Reiden and his troops!"

Meanwhile, Keira summoned her Eco powers; her eyes and hands lit up bright yellow. She brought her hands forth until they lined up with the other pursuing Paladin. Yellow-colored blasts erupted from her glowing hands and shot the beast head-on. First, the beast faltered back and forth, as if deciding whether or not to keep fighting or fall unconscious. To help quicken its decision, Keira shot five more consecutive blasts, leading to the latter of his choices.

Crash quickly dove behind the falling Paladin and firmly planted his feet on the ground. He brought his arms up to catch it, or at least soften its landing. As the little bandicoot became engulfed by its shadow, he said, "Nope, I did not think this one through…" The three hundred fifty pound monster dropped down onto Crash's struggling arms, and soon, legs. Crash descended to his back with all fours desperately holding up the unconscious Paladin's back. He quickly slid out from under it, only resulting in a low thud.

Keira said, "Oops, SORRY Crash! Are you okay?"

He gave a thumbs-up. "Nah, I'm fine. Just like carrying my sister when she falls asleep on the couch…don't tell her I said that."

Sage said, "Don't celebrate yet; we still gotta find Reiden."

Sora inferred, "If you think about it, he's probably partying with the rest of the troopers."

Jem asked, "So we should go to his throne and wait till he meets us there?"

Crash said, "No, that's too risky. Daxter, can you climb up there and see if Reiden is anywhere in the mess hall?"

"You got it, Captain," Daxter replied as he leapt from Jak's shoulder to a nearby pole that led to the upper landing. In another leap, Daxter landed on the second landing and noticed that the door to the all-you-can-eat buffet was slightly cracked. "Hello, hello…"

The sneaky ottsel poked his orange head inside and glanced at all the chaotic festivities. There was eating at the buffet, Rock Band playing, Dance Dance Revolution dancing, Wii Sports, and Blu-ray DVD watching on big screen televisions, but no Lord Reiden. (1)

After Daxter returned to the others, he reported, "Well, they're just havin' a good ole blast up there, but Reiden ain't in sight. I kinda wish I were…never mind…"

"Stay focused, Dax," Jak said. "So what's the plan?"

Crash responded, "Well, at least half of us needs to stay down here whenever the others come back from rescuing the prisoners and to keep guard. Any volunteers?"

Jem said, "Sage and I will remain down here."

Sage reacted with, "Oh, thank god! I thought I was gonna have to fight that pyro-psycho."

Murray said, "I humbly volunteer to watch over these innocent villagers as well as defend the others from more bad guys."

Daxter hurriedly said, "Um, Jak, Keira, and I will stay down here, also!" After receiving glares from Jak and Keira, he said, "What? I ain't goin' near that lunatic!"

After no one else volunteered, Crash said, "Okay, then. Link, Sora, and Kairi will come with me to defeat Reiden."

Sora and Link stared daggers at each other, neither blinking. Link said while still glaring at Sora, "Sounds like a plan."

Sora said also, "Sounds like a _good_ plan." Kairi shook her head as she clasped her hand to her forehead.

A bit bewildered, Crash said, "Um…yeah. Thanks?"

* * *

_1) They were watching Terminator: Salvation. Best. Movie. Ever._

_Up next, a dive into **Reiden's Lair**! (Actually, there's a lot of climbing.)_


	27. Reiden's Lair

Chapter 27: Reiden's Lair

It was a bit quiet during the long tread up the marble staircase. It spiraled in a square-like direction, lining along the walls of the elevated tower that led up to Reiden's lair. The walls seemed to have a crude and coarse design to them; it looked like molten rock had been dried and left there like it was. The four travelers could also make out little shiny pieces of granite lodged in the wall, but it mostly looked like the inside of a volcanic crater. At first, Crash led Link, Kairi, and Sora up the staircase in an energetic run, but after a thousand stairs, they unanimously decided to bring it to a slow pace.

Crash looked over the banister to see the bottom of the staircase had just become a speck in the distance. To break the eerie silence, Crash said, "So…looks like we're three quarters of the way there."

A few steps ahead of the bandicoot, Link replied loathsomely, "Yeah."

From the rear, Sora also said, "Yeah." While he walked, he let his right hand run along the crude walls.

Crash asked, "Okay, does someone wanna tell me what's goin' on with the two of you?"

From behind him, Kairi said, "I think they got off on the wrong foot."

Crash replied, "What are you talking about? We all had fun introducing ourselves, remember?"

"Well, they apparently are fighting for, _ahem_, some reason," Kairi said, obviously masking the fact the she knew the real basis.

Crash said, "Fighting, huh? Don't forget who the real enemy is, guys. Besides, the only thing I really remember is Link winking and smiling at you."

For a moment, Sora and Kairi stopped treading while Crash and Link continued on. Sora said, "Please tell me you're talking to ME."

Crash turned his body as he walked and answered, "Nope, I was talking to ole Red right there in front of you. You know, the girl that's standing frozen a few feet in front of you? Since she's on a higher step, she's also probably a foot higher than you right now. You see her, don't you?"

Kairi blushed and said, "We REALLY need to keep moving."

Sora snapped back to reality and said, "Yeah, let's move."

Link stopped on a corner of the staircase, which was a flat landing, thinking he had heard something. After a few moments of only hearing the others' footsteps behind him, he brushed it off as pre-battle paranoia.

They walked a little further up, and this time, they could actually see the closed door to Reiden's throne room a few flights upward. Crash said cheerfully, "Hey, we're almost there!"

Since Link was ahead, he was the first to get the surprise; from those crude walls came a skeletal arm made completely of igneous rocks that wielded a sword right across Link's torso. Link stopped abruptly, obviously taken by surprise from the metal instrument daring to eviscerate him.

From behind him, the others had heard the metallic sound of the sword exiting a mold in the rocky wall and immediately turned their attention towards Link, who was back-tracking a couple of steps.

Suddenly, that igneous arm was joined by a full skeleton-like body; it must have been blending in with the rest of the black wall. A deep outline of its body now engraved the hollow spot it was once residing in. Standing at about seven feet, the camouflaged soldier pointed the sword at Link like an accusing finger and asked in a rather deep tone, "Who are _you?_"

Gaping at the soldier's size, Crash said, "Oh, dang…"

The soldier questioned them some more, "What business do you have with Lord Reiden?"

With his hand on the hilt of his blade, Link answered, "We're his fan club."

The soldier said aggressively, "Intruders! Hostiles are near Lord Reiden!"

Suddenly, seven more seven-foot spy guards from that flight began ripping themselves out the wall; two of them appeared between Crash and Kairi, towering above them; three appeared behind Sora and two in front. Link, who had drawn his sword, tried hacking at the guard standing in front of him, but his strikes were met with soldier's own sword. Next, Link had a notion; he pulled the shield off his back and positioned it in front of his upper body. He rammed the soldier like a red-sighted bull until they hit the corner of the wall. The soldier shattered on impact, leaving rubble by the Hylian's feet.

Kairi and Sora had drawn their Keyblades and were doing their best to combat their surrounding enemies. Crash only worried about not getting cut; since he had no weapon, he dodged strikes from the soldier two steps below him. Crash gave the guard a strong nudge, causing it to stagger and fall over the banister and ultimately plummet to its dusty death.

Kairi held her To-Be-Named Keyblade in her right hand with the blade aligning with her arm. She tried making swift slashes at the one in front of her, but the igneous trooper wasn't going down in a few hits. Crash lent a helping hand and swept his leg under the guard's stone legs, causing it to temporarily levitate sideways. Kairi followed up with a hard vertical hack down the floating soldier's midsection, severing it in half.

Sora was surrounded by four soldiers, having already taken one down, and his battle wasn't getting any easier. From higher up the staircase, Link commanded Crash and Kairi to, "Stand back!" They both sunk to the igneous wall as the hero extracted a boomerang of sorts. It looked like two eagle wings fixated on a metal focal point. "This is called the Gale Boomerang, by the way," Link muttered as he aimed at the two guards standing higher above Sora, who had his back turned to them. He whispered, "Return," and threw the boomerang. Once it hit, it ricocheted between the two rock guards repeatedly. As the 'rang rapidly bounced between them, bits and pieces of the soldiers began falling to the stairs, creating a little dust in the process. Finally, after the two soldiers had been thoroughly reduced to rubble, the Gale Boomerang returned to Link as he had commanded.

Sora only had two seconds to notice that the guards behind him had been vanquished. Then, he turned back around to deflect an oncoming strike from one of the last two guards; he slashed his Ultima down at the soldier's left leg, making him fall, one-legged.

Crash charged down the stairway towards the clashing Keyblader and said, "I'll help ya, Sora!" The bandicoot slammed his fist into the standing trooper's limestone ribcage. It cracked and busted; the trooper showed no pain as he pulled Crash's fist out of his ribs. Crash tried punching it with his other fist, but it was caught by the trooper's other hand. They both struggled, and Crash suddenly felt his feet losing anchor. He slid backwards, making a gravelly noise against the stone steps; the one-legged trooper suddenly grabbed the bandicoot's ankle with a boney hand, scrunching his blue jeans. Crash fell backwards and tipped over the banister, falling down to the abyss. However, he managed to drag the guard he was struggling with down with him.

Sora and Kairi both screamed, "CRASH!"

Being the hero again, Link said, "Stay here, I'll rescue him!" He leapt over the banister and dove for the falling bandicoot.

Kairi went over to the banister and stared after Link as he valiantly nose-dived down the void. She murmured softly, "Wow…"

Sora crossed his arms and said sarcastically, "So amazing."

Link, of course, had a plan. With his green cap fluttering, he surged through the air to see Crash resisting attacks from the trooper in mid-fall. Like a torpedo, Link shredded down to Crash and clutched the mammal with his right arm. Immediately, the Hylian hero drew his Clawshot tool and shot the apparatus upward to one of the stacking staircases. Crash looked down to see that the ground was quickly approaching them. Crash shouted, "Uh-oh, Link! We're running out of yardage!"

Link eyed the grappling hook as it zoomed closer to the edge of one staircase, the rope whizzing about. Nearing the painful end of their freefall, Link muttered through clenched teeth, "Almost there…"

The guard tried grabbing onto Crash's leg so as to have a shot of not splatting all over the fortress's interior. Seeing this, Crash rammed his shoe into the soldier's jaw, completely dislocating its…well, face.

Finally, Link's hook caught on to the base of a banister that was about three-fifths of the way down from their original position. With Crash clutching his midsection, they stopped falling abruptly, and in a very Batman: Arkham Asylum fashion, they zip-lined upward to safety.

When they finally made it back to solid ground, (solid as far as stairways go) Crash sprang to the steps and began panting heavily. He said, "Holy smokes, that was scary! Man, I gotta learn how to fly…"

Link said, "Let's go Crash, there's no time to lose!"

"Right!" agreed Crash as they began running up the rectangular spiraled staircase again.

Meanwhile, Sora and Kairi had problems of their own: more guards had peeled themselves off the walls. Deciding they weren't in the mood to scuffle with them, the duo darted up the stairs. Sora let Kairi take a lead of three yards, keeping a close eye on the advancing troops behind them. Sora said hastily, "Keep running! Two more levels to go!"

The redhead said, "I really am starting to hate this place!"

"Me too, just keep moving!"

"Wait—there's the door! C'mon, Sora!"

As they drew nearer to the large crimson and gold plated door, Sora noticed more guards coming from the walls around them. He complained, "Aw, man! Where were these guys on the lower levels?"

"Probably setting us up to think that we were safe." They wasted no time pulling open the large door and darting inside. They pushed the door closed, sealing away their stalkers.

Sora said, "NOW, we're safe."

They turned around to observe the inside of Reiden's throne room. Two words described it all: large-scale. Far up ahead was Reiden's golden throne, which sparkled in the distance from a mounted torchlight. In between them and the throne was a wide open court with marble tile flooring of a dark gray color. This was obviously used for military orders and groovy dancing. On the right and left sides of the courtroom were large double-hinged doors that led to the outside world. (These led to the balconies that Reiden ran through in the beginning of the previous chapter.) The ceiling was almost dome-shaped; from the center hung a huge metal net of torches.

Through the dimly lit throne room, Sora and Kairi scanned every inch with their eyes, checking for an evil overlord. After deducting that the emperor wasn't present, the duo exhaled a sigh of relief.

Kairi wondered, "Where do you think Reiden might be?"

"Beats me," replied Sora. "Just to be safe, let's check this place out."

They walked across the courtroom to observe the very shiny, gold plated throne of Lord Reiden. Sora commented, "This guy lives large."

"Yeah." Kairi laughed as she said, "Maybe he's got a diary stashed around here!"

"Really?"

"Yeah! Leaders always have diaries to write about their political and personal life. Go check under his throne!"

Sora investigated the throne and discovered, "This thing is nailed to the floor."

"Then check behind it."

"…Nothin' here. Hey, how about at the same time we look for the last piece of the Oni-stone?"

"Great idea! We should be able to find something!" Kairi thought for a moment. "Hmm…why don't you go look through those big doors on the side over there? I'll look in here some more…"

Sora saluted and said, "Aye-aye."

Sora walked across the courtroom to the door on the right of the throne's perspective, not actually knowing what was on the other side. After pushing open the heavy wooden doors, he was taken aback by the balcony's height above the dark landscape. He took deep breath to take in the sight, but soon became lightheaded. "Whoa…dizzy…"

Back in Reiden's lair, Kairi was having a hard time trying to find what she was looking for. Behind the throne, she mumbled to herself, "I know you keep it somewhere…"

All of a sudden, in a burst of black flames, Lord Reiden himself appeared right in front of his golden throne, and every torch inside the room suddenly lit up. Reiden stretched his arms and said, "Ooh, wee! That Calypso can be so boring sometimes."

With rising fear, Kairi poked her head out from behind the throne and immediately noted that he was indeed Reiden Long.

The emperor took his seat on his throne and closed his eyes. Immediately, he reopened them and noticed one of the balcony doors was cracked open. He pounced up from his sitting position and stood back up again, shouting, "Alright, WHO'S IN HERE?"

Kairi tried to telepathically tell Sora about the terrible danger she was in. Where was he?

Reiden continued to talk to himself: "You know what, I ain't even gonna call the guards; I'll deal with who or whatever you are myself." Reiden sniffed the air like a dog. "Mmm…someone's got Pantene. The aroma smells fresh…"

Kairi thought, _Okay, I'm about to die…if a certain someone doesn't bring his lazy butt in here and help me! Wait—what would Sora—or Link—do?_

Reiden looked at the throne. "I think I might know where you are…"

Kairi suddenly braved up and stood up from behind the throne. She summoned her Keyblade one-handedly.

Reiden Long stared in disbelief. "Wha—what is THIS?"

The redhead said, "This is the last weapon you'll ever see!" She walked out in front of the throne to show herself.

"Actually, I was talking about your sorry self! You can't be ser…" Suddenly, Reiden calmed down. "Is this the Princess Kairi?"

Confused, she asked, "How—how the heck do you know me?"

"You and a few others were the talk of Oblivion. I knew a guy named Saïx, and he told me all about you and your friends' heroic deeds right before I escaped that place."

Kairi responded, "That's touching."

Reiden raised an eyebrow. With a smirk, he asked, "So this it what they really think of my power? They send Kairi to extinguish me? Just plain insulting…"

"You're a lot of talk, you know that?"

Reiden's smirk twitched to a sneer. "Alright, I'll have fun with you a little…"

Kairi said, "Uh-oh…"

"You know, you'll be the first heroin to be slaughtered by me since I escaped Oblivion. You should be honored, princess."

"How about I send you back to that place? Sora, get in here!"

Silence. Nothing.

"Boyfriend not coming? That blows. Oh well, time to die."

As Reiden readied his spinning arm-blades, Kairi mumbled, "Not good."

The emperor dashed Kairi's way and made several sideways slashes with his right arm-blade. Kairi parried it with her Keyblade, utilizing her one-handed style. However, she couldn't dodge the roundhouse kick inflicted by Reiden's right leg to her waist. She flew to her left and landed on the floor; springing up, she noticed Reiden hadn't followed up with another attack. He just stood there, waiting.

"If you're gonna go easy on me, then you're gonna lose!" she said, wielding her weapon.

"But then I'd have no one else to kill. And that blows. So this is gonna be one long night."

"I hate long nights…" She raised her voice, "Sora! Reiden's here!"

"…Mmm, still no response. I'd divorce him." He turned his head to look behind him, seeing the opened door again. Whilst still looking behind, he asked, "Where is he, outside?"

After getting no response from the redhead, he decided to look back at her, only to find her charging right at him with Keyblade in hand. Reiden easily parried the x-cross slashes Kairi attempted and gave her a swift horizontal slash.

Because she had been knocked off guard by Raiden's parries, Kairi could not block his horizontal slash and had no choice but to vault backwards; when she landed, she believed herself to be cut. After feeling her abdomen, she laid those thoughts to rest, feeling no grazing or opening. "That was close."

The thirsty overlord clanged together his swords, as if sharpening them. "This will be even closer."

Suddenly, a boy's voice from behind him shouted, _"Blizzara!"_

In a frosty wind, Reiden was now completely paved in ice from the waist down. "YEE-AAAH! Oh, oh, oh, oh, cold, cold, cold, cold!"

Sora dashed over to Kairi's side, Ultima in his hands. "What's up?"

Kairi elbowed him. "Don't 'what's up' me! I almost got gutted like a fish!"

"Ouch! Well, thanks to the skills Riku and I taught you, you managed to stay alive!"

"Where were you anyway?"

Sora scratched his head. "Well, I kinda went outside, got lightheaded, and passed out."

Furious, Kairi scolded, "Sora, you lazy—!"

"—Bum, yeah, I know." He focused his attention on the half frozen overlord. "C'mon, let's just beat this guy!"

Kairi took her stance as well. "Let's kick his butt!"

Reiden lit his body on fire in anger, melting the ice in the process. As steam rose from the wet spots on his metallic pants, he said with a clamped jaw, "Okay, Porcupine, now you've pissed me off!"

* * *

Aku Aku: Show time…

Stealth Trooper

These iterations of Reiden's guards are mainly used for stealth-related tasks, as hinted in the name. They aren't as tall or huge as the Paladins, but they definitely are taller than the average Stone Trooper. They carry only a sword and have the uncanny ability of blending within the crudely designed walls of Reiden's tower to take out any intruders.

_Crash Bandicoot and Link have been separated from Sora and Kairi, who fight the evil Lord Reiden side-by-side. The bandicoot and Hylian hero race to their aide, knowing of the type of danger that they're walking straight into. Can they make it to Sora and Kairi's aide before it's too late?_

_And what will become of the prison break team lingering in the dungeons?_

_All that and more in the next chapter, __**Spark of War**__._


	28. Spark of War

Chapter 28: Spark of War

Meanwhile, during the period in which Team Crossbow and Crazy Hair had struggled to stay alive above ground, Team Clanker and Dead Bird were actually at ease. Coco led a crowd of accompanied minors and her fellow teammates through the dimly torch lit corridors of the dungeons.

Riku walked from the back with several children walking cautiously in front of him. Riku asked, his voice echoing off the walls, "So, um…what happened, did you guys go insane back there…or what?"

A boy said, "Considering we were only in there for about sixty eight hours, I think it's safe to say that we over dramatized things a bit…"

Riku raised an eyebrow and said, "Oh. Now things make sense."

From the front of the prisoner convoy, Ratchet assessed, "And you don't think fifteen is a little young for wearing 'eye patches?'"

Coco replied coolly, "Not really. You think there's something wrong?"

"Um, no…nah."

From Ratchet's back, Clank inquired, "What are you two talking about? Are you a pirate, Miss Bandicoot?"

Sly walked up to the box-sized robot and said, "When you're older, you'll know."

The little girl who still hung from the raccoon's fluffy tail asked, "Are we there yet?"

Sly answered, "No…Coco, are we there yet?"

Coco answered, "Actually, yes!"

The crowd stood before a long corridor containing more cells. These, however, were supposed to contain the adult prisoners. Goofy asked, "Gawrsh, how d'ya suppose we free all of 'em without alertin' the guards?"

A single voice resounded from one of the cellars down the hall: "That's cuz I'm the only prisoner in here!"

While everyone looked dumbstruck, Bentley asked, "So what your sayin' is…you're the only genius to get voluntarily captured by Reiden's troops?"

The voice echoed again, "_Yeah…_but when I first got thrown in here, I thought there were a lot of people down here who remembered my cause, but that was just my own echo…" After a moment of silence for everyone to reflect on the man's stupidity, he said, "Man, it took me till a few hours ago to realize I was by myself."

THAT called for another moment of silence.

Bentley said indifferently, "Right…so we're just gonna go ahead and bust you out…"

After carefully busting down three wrong doors and finally the right one, Crunch seized the village man from ten chapters ago and pitilessly slung him over his massive shoulder. He told him, "Let's go, loud mouth."

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the entrance hall of Reiden's fortress, all was calm, too. Jak, Keira, Daxter, Sage, Jem, and Murray all stood guard whilst listening to the chatter and festivity of the Stone Troopers within the buffet room.

Daxter said, "Man, I hope I can get in that wild party before it ends…"

Suddenly, a loud voice from the above room shouted, "Hey! I just got a text message from Lord Reiden saying there're intruders! Let's end this wild party!"

Daxter shrieked in disappointment, "D'OH!"

Stone Troopers poured out from the all-you-can-eat buffet room, armed with bows, arrows, swords, and shields. About one hundred fifty of them lined every inch of the second landing along the banisters, glaring acid at the six intruders.

Knowing what was to come, Sage said dramatically, "Jem, my lifelong friend, it is an honor…to die by your side…"

Jem, who was just as solemn, said, "And it was an honor to have lived by yours…"

Daxter insulted, "What are you two gonna do, KISS? Save that for Jak and Keira."

Jak added, "We haven't lost the battle yet, guys. Keira, warn the others in the dungeons about this. Tell them to NOT come up here!"

Keira replied, "Got it!" as she extracted the comm device.

Murray tightened his beat-em-up gloves while saying, "The Murray says we crash that party after dealing with these oafs."

Jem said, "Lend some of that bravery to me, valiant hippopotamus. I'm gonna need it."

Ducking behind Jak's ears, Daxter admitted, "Hey, in case we don't make it outta this, I just want both of you to know that it was me who put the spoiled yakow milk back in the fridge. Four times."

With sarcasm, Jak said, "Thanks, I was only sick for four months."

The troopers aimed their crossbows at them like a sentinel wall. One captain trooper shouted, "Ready? Aim…"

Utilizing his Light powers, Jak transformed. He told everyone, "Stand by me if you want to live!" Murray, Keira, Jem, and Sage did as they were told, backing up to him with all eyes fixed on the impending rain of arrows.

The captain snapped his fingers, as if trying to remember something. "What's the word? Fizzy, no…flurry, no…facial, no…furry, freaky, feisty, fiery…oh yeah, FIRE!"

Right before arrows made Swiss cheese of them, Light Jak illuminated a clear-blue shield of energy around him and everyone near. The arrows stopped short and snapped into pieces on contact with the Light Shield, creating red pulsations all around.

Jem and Sage stared in awe at the phenomenon; they backed up closer to Jak, fearing the shield's integrity wouldn't hold up. Keira looked over her shoulder to check on Jak, only to notice him weakly dropping to a knee. The arrows weren't letting up, but Jak's stamina _was_…

Daxter tapped Jak in the temple and said, "C'mon, Jak, just a little longer, or we'll all be their dart boards!"

Finally, after thirty-three long seconds, the precipitation ended. Jak's Light powers vaporized and dissolved as he fell on his face, Daxter's little body wedged underneath him. Keira knelt over him, desperately trying to shake him awake. She shouted, "Come on, Jak! You've got to fight with the rest of us!"

After the troopers realized they were out of ammo, they began their march down the two short staircases. They filled the entire first floor, surrounding the six trespassers. They only left three meters between them and the intruders (most of that space was covered in debris from the broken arrows). A captain emerged from the militia, daringly standing in the front. He said loud enough for every being in the room to hear, "For trespassing on imperial grounds, you six are sentenced to an unpleasant beat-down in mob form. Any questions? No? Then die…"

Jak stood up just in time to see hundreds of Stone Troopers rushing them on all sides. While he shook out the cobwebs, Murray shouted, "C'MON, FELLAS! LET'S SHOW THESE FOSSILS HOW TO REALLY FIGHT!"

Keira rushed forward at the stampede, yelling, "YOU GUYS AIN'T NOTHIN'!" Jem fell in behind her, using his shield to bump off baddies that got too close. Sage did the same behind Murray, except he added a sword slash after every shield-bump.

Jak looked down at the pancake'd ottsel and said, "Come on, Dax, this might be a long battle." He grabbed the Morph-Gun from the strap on his back, activating the Scatter-Mod. He cocked it and said with a devilish smirk, "Let's get down to business…"

Daxter peeled himself off the stone floor and said, "Right, 'cuz these things ALWAYS go smoothly…"

Noticing his danger, Jak swiftly seized Daxter from the floor and to his shoulder, right as a metal blade slammed down to the ottsel's previous location. The hero spin-kicked two soldiers prowling behind him, and then he used one hand to blast the trooper threatening to kill Daxter.

Screaming in his ear, Daxter yelled, "Ya see? YA SEE? I almost died AGAIN!"

"Relax, Dax," Jak said calmly, still smirking. "These toys don't stand a chance against our Scatter Shot."

"Hmm…right, well, I'll watch yer back…" The dynamic duo charged off into the thick of the battle.

* * *

"STAY STILL!" Reiden cried as he made numerous attempts to cut Sora. Behind him, Kairi hacked away, only to have her blows met by Reiden's left arm-blade. Caught in the middle, the emperor skillfully battled each Keyblader on either side, showing no signs of stress.

Sora aimed high, Kairi cut low; Reiden matched a low slash from the princess and twisted his blade and hers upward to throw her off guard; at the same time, he held his right arm-blade upward to deflect a chop from Sora and kneed him in the chest. While Sora staggered, Reiden ducked down to dodge a horizontal slash by Kairi, following up with a leg-sweep across her ankles. While she fell on the ground, Reiden sidestepped a vertical strike from the brunette and slashed across the boy's right shoulder, causing him to clutch it in pain. Still facing Sora, the emperor back flipped high up above to avoid a sharp jab from Kairi, who was only knelt down on one knee. Right before he came back down to land, he slammed his own knee into the poor girl's back, ruffling her pink shirt and thrusting her forward to Sora. Grounded, Reiden charged at the two downed heroes, but stopped short; with his good arm, Sora had thrown his Ultima Weapon at the advancing overlord, only to have it deflected like a paper ball. Leaving the redhead to lay face-down, sprawled out on the floor, Sora leapt up and charged at the advancing emperor, pain and anger in his eyes.

After summoning his Ultima again, the chosen Keyblader hit at Reiden's left side, right side, and neck. Reiden blocked each and cut downwards with both arm-blades, only to be blocked by Sora's Ultima. While Sora still had his arms in the air from blocking the previous attack, Reiden stepped in and threw his elbow into Sora's gut, making the young boy cough out blood. Reiden kept his elbow buried in the boy's abdomen, smiling sadistically. "Say 'when'…" he taunted. After receiving no response, Reiden let the boy go anyway. Sora hit the floor, landing on his back spread-eagled.

However, just as he hit the floor, Kairi had leapt over his body and confronted Reiden. The overlord responded to this by levitating above the floor, rapidly spinning like a top at the girl; she treaded backwards, making sure to not step on Sora. Finally, she decided to hack at the human saw blade, resulting in her arm jolting backwards from the great force. Suddenly, as Reiden's spinning attack zeroed in on the overwhelmed Kairi, her entire body was hauled to the floor; she looked over to see that it was Sora who had pulled her down. Still weakly lying on his back and with one eye half-closed, he said, "We gotta move!"

They rolled in opposite directions and were on either side of Reiden again; he had stopped spinning to regain his bearings and observe the situation. Sora and Kairi had resumed hacking away, hoping a single slash would land. Sora cut diagonally and Kairi cut vertically, so Reiden cart-wheeled (with no hands) over to the girl, dodging both strikes. Reiden rotated fighting arms, pivoting his body until facing the reverse position. Reiden bent his back over rearward to dodge two sideways slashes from the Keybladers. After coming back up, Reiden dropped to his hands and pushed himself backwards to avoid another double-Keyblade vertical strike. As the blades hit the empty floor, Reiden generated a fireball in his left hand and blasted Sora, causing a mild explosion. Next, he roundhouse-kicked Kairi in her side, thrusting the metal heel of his boot into her. She fell over and screamed from the pain, music to his ears. Before letting her fall, the evil emperor caught the girl by her hair and pulled her back up to a standing position.

"AAAHH!" Kairi screamed, awkwardly standing in front of the overlord.

Clearly getting joy, Reiden tugged harder and tightened his fingers on her crimson hair. He said viciously, "Scream louder for me, princess…"

Finally, he let her go, and she dropped to the floor, facing away from him.

Obviously outraging Sora, Reiden anticipated another foolish attack by the boy, but instead, he heard him say:

"Blizzara!"

Reiden turned around and saw the magic spell; he knew getting hit by that again would be a big no-no, so he dropped down on his back. The spell nearly grazed his chin; he could feel the chilliness pass over his entire body.

It seemed like just now that Sora had finally realized how fast Reiden Long actually was; for him to evade that spell was unprecedented to the mind of the bewildered teenager. Suddenly, he realized he had just placed the person kneeling behind Reiden in danger. Sora noticed she had just turned around to realize the blast of ice heading straight for her. "Kairi…" he uttered.

Still feeling the surging pain in her side and scalp, she could barely move. In slow motion, she stared at the airborne magic spell, and she soon realized that evasion was impossible.

Reiden laughed heartily in those last three seconds before the spell hit her; Sora began to slowly drop to his knees as he had remembered a promise.

The ice spell glimmered brightly against her face, lighting up her fearful eyes. As she tightly closed them, a cold zephyr hit her like a blue winter erupting in perpetual motion. But suddenly, the bright breeze was whisked away from her, and she soon realized she was no longer standing on her own feet.

Opening her eyes, Kairi saw the ice spell had hit a distant wall and that she was completely out of the way. She looked down to see orange fur…

"CRASH!" the girl shrieked in the bandicoot's arms, not believing what had happened.

Sora and Reiden both stared wide-eyed, blue and brown. Simultaneously, they exclaimed, "WHAT?" They both looked up to see Link and Crash standing a bit farther away in the room, the latter of whom carrying a startled Kairi.

Crash Bandicoot replied, "Hey, I gotcha. It's okay." He put her down and said, "Man…you guys have been getting torn up."

Link said, "But we're here, now. Leave it to us."

Crash asked Kairi in a whisper, "Um, Sora isn't going to start being a jerk to me just 'cuz I saved you, right?"

She smiled. "Of course he will."

"I can hear you two," Sora said, panting feebly. He stood up and grinned as he solely said to Crash, "Man, am I glad you're here."

"Hey, no problem. I suggest the both of you sit out the rest of this fight. You should do something about that shoulder."

"Right," Sora replied. Masking his excruciating pain, he walked past the sitting emperor and over to Kairi, Link, and Crash.

Reiden jumped up, obviously frustrated. He shouted after Sora, "WAIT! Get back here! I'm not done kickin' your scrawny behind around!"

In the midway point between Reiden and the others, Sora stopped to look back at the overlord. He wiped blood from his mouth and said, "Our fight's clearly over. Now why don't you try to fight someone who can actually stand a chance?"

Sora turned his back and kept walking, enraging Reiden. On edge, he yelled after the boy, "I said…STOP!" He forged a soccer-ball sized ball of fire in his right hand and hurled it at Sora's back. The blast made contact, causing the boy to lurch forward and fall to the floor, unconscious. A large, smoking hole in his shirt exposed his flesh.

Kairi and Crash screamed, "SORA!"

All three heroes quickly rushed to Sora's aide. (Link walked.) Kairi arrived to the downed Keyblader first; she turned him over on his back and checked to see if he was breathing. Crash knelt beside her while Link stood closeby, watching with glazed eyes. Kairi felt a faint breath exit Sora's open mouth. His eyes were half-closed. "C'mon, Sora, snap out of it…"

Crash shot into the air with a P.O.'ed expression. He scolded, "There was nothing honorable about what you just did, REIDEN!"

The nasty emperor laughed to himself and said, "Oops."

The infuriated bandicoot left Kairi, Link, and Sora to challenge Reiden himself. Crash proposed, "What do you say we finish up what we started a few hours ago?"

"My pleasure." Reiden's posture suddenly straightened as he said, "Hey, guess where I was a half hour ago!"

The bandicoot looked confused at the sudden break of character and said, "Um…where?"

"A meeting between me and my fellow vengeance-seeking, world-dominating pung yo mun, that's where!"

"Um…that's awesome?"

"And guess what we all just got authorization to do!"

"What?"

"If you'll remember, according to an extremely angry voice from earlier, that that thing I was doing on you for, like, ten seconds was supposedly violating an order."

Crash snapped his fingers and said, "Oh yeah! You were goin' all crazy with your powers and the voice was all like, 'Hey! Stoppit! It's too early to go crazy with your powers,' or something. What about it?"

"I've just been permitted to do it."

Crash's cool mood fell ten stories. "So in other words…this ain't gonna be easy."

Reiden levitated three feet above the ground, adopting the red and black aura again. With another explosion of dust, Lord Reiden returned to his torched form, flames returning to the silhouette of his body.

Link called over to the marsupial, "Crash, remember he's eight times faster in that form!"

Crash took his fighting stance and muttered, "You don't gotta tell me twice…"

Eye's wide and red, Reiden glared at Crash and said, "Before I start the bloodbath, I'd like to know if you came here for the last Oni-shard."

Crash blinked twice. "Um…the last what?"

"Don't play dumb! I already know that it was you and your pals who somehow deactivated my towers!" Reiden pointed up at the chain chandelier hanging from the center of the ceiling. "You're trying to get that one, aren't you!"

Crash glanced up and instantly noticed a very dim green glow in the center of the chandelier. The bandicoot said nonchalantly, "Oh, so that's where it is."

Suddenly the rock detached itself from the large ornament and floated all the way down to Reiden's left hand. It was a sizable piece, much chunkier than those found in the towers; it was about the size of tennis ball cut in half. Reiden kissed it and said, "Beautiful, ain't it? It contains a natural energy called Mojo. This rock is concentrated with so much evil Mojo, heavenly beings can't come near it. That way, weaklings like Orphco won't mess with my fortress."

Crash asked, "Are there more things like that?"

"Yeah, but it takes centuries to make the Mojo stable. I remember when I first commanded my monks to activate it. It's a shame I can't thank them."

"So that's really the last piece?"

Reiden looked to the side and frowned as he answered, "No, not really. My good buddy Draksin swung by last night to claim a piece." His body's flames suddenly jumped, signifying anger. He sighed and cursed himself, "Dang it, shouldn't have given him such a big shard."

Crash Bandicoot said, "Draksin? Is he one of your bad-guy teammates?"

The emperor commented, "My, oh my. We are full of questions today. To answer it short-ways, yes."

"Last question: is it possible you can tell me who and…um, where your teammates are?"

Reiden narrowed his red eyes and smirked. "Well, since you are about to die, I'll at least tell ya who they are. The angry voice from earlier belonged to a ninja-woman named Calypso. There's a scientist guy named Dr. Mavo. And the last guy you don't know is a werewolf-type named Isaac."

"What type is Draksin?"

Obviously, Lord Reiden had no intention of talking about the man. Enraged, he shouted, "Enough questions; it's time to die!"

With a smirk, Crash replied, "Actually, that's all the time _we_ needed…"

"Wha…" came form Reiden's mouth. His words were cut short as a boomerang sliced across his left hand, freeing the captive Oni-shard. "AH! What was that—?"

Crash sprinted over to Reiden to catch the airborne Oni-shard and quickly bounded backwards. "Got it!" yelled the joyous bandicoot. He turned around and gave Link a thumbs-up. Sora had now gained consciousness and was being helped up by Kairi. Crash turned back Reiden and said, "That time was for Sora's healing, by the way. Thanks for the info, though."

Reiden's flames suddenly exploded all bout his body. "You tricky little PUNKS! I'll kill you!"

But before anyone threw a punch, the throne door burst open, revealing one of the igneous troopers. He said, "Your highness, we have intruders!"

Reiden's flames died down a little as he gave the skeletal trooper a flat look. He said to him, "Yeah, I know. I'm dealing with them right now, genius."

"No, my Lord. It's downstairs! A battle has erupted in the common room!"

"Huh, what are you…WHAT?" Reiden exploded with anger.

Link whispered to Kairi, "Let's get outta here…"

The soldier volunteered, "If you are in need of venting your anger, you may kill me, Lord Reiden!"

Reiden said, "No, your life is as meaningless as dirt. Those pitiful villagers will…wait, where are Princess Redhead, Green Gills, Rat, and Sora?"

The trooper looked around. "Pardon me, my Lord?"

Reiden looked across the room to see an orange figure disappearing behind his large throne door. He said in a low voice, "Trooper, did you leave the door open when you came in here?"

"…Oh…my bad, Lord Reiden."

Suddenly, the soldier exploded to a million pieces of stone (well, dust). Reiden had obviously blasted him. "Well, what do you know? That felt great after all."

Meanwhile, the four heroes dashed down the stone staircase, skipping three at a time. They thought Reiden would never be able to catch up with their speed. There were igneous troopers on the staircase, but they were running in the same direction for some reason. Kairi ran closely behind Crash, staying within five feet of the orange bandicoot. A few meters behind her was the Hylian warrior, who ran with his hand clutched to the hilt of his sword, watching her closely. And behind him was the Chosen Keyblader, who had shaken all the cobwebs from his head.

While running, Kairi said, "Hey, it looks like Reiden isn't catching up!"

Suddenly, Reiden Long descended from the center of the spiral, floating. "You forgot I could fly, stupid chick!"

Kairi shouted, "AH, RATS!"

The flying overlord brought out his hand and began shooting fireballs and saying, "Die, you little rodents!"

Everyone kept running; the first blast hit the wall between Kairi and Crash; the second blasted the banister Link had just passed; the third blasted the floor under Sora's feet. The boy tried to grab the remnants of the floor, but it seemed he was going to fall to the case of stairs below him, which was pretty far down. Just as the hope drained from his face, an armored and gloved hand latched onto his wrist and hauled his entire body to the unbroken levels of stone steps. Sora looked up to see his savior.

Link held out his hand; Sora took it and stood up. He stared for a few seconds until saying, "C'mon, let's get moving!"

The boy in green replied, "I have a better idea. Everyone, grab onto me and jump!"

Sora said, "Yeah, I can tell where this brilliant plan is headed…"

A few seconds later, all four heroes were plummeting down the chute of the tower, with Kairi and Sora screaming at the tops of their lungs. Link remained silent while Crash bellowed, "WHOOOOOO-HOOOOO!"

* * *

_Our heroes have finally escaped the fiery clutches of the evil overlord Reiden Long with his last piece of the Oni-stone!_

_Apparently, every person in the fortress knows about the erupting war occuring on the ground floor, including the dungeon-prison breakers. But is it already too late for one of the fighters? Oh, wait, never mind. They're still living. Anyways..._

_Don't miss the great war in the next chapter, Combustion!_

_Oh yeah, and merry Christmas, Happy Kwanza, and Happy Hanuka! (however you spell it.)_


	29. Combustion

Crunch: It's ya boy Crunch, here! Telling you that it's good for the soul to give and help out the less fortunate, so don't be a fool, fools! Crunch out!

Chapter 29: Combustion

Riding down Link's zip-line, the four heroes exited the staircase room and onto the second landing of the large entry room, Oni-shard in their position. Crash, Link, Sora, and Kairi all leaned over the banister, observing the epic battle below.

Jak and Daxter were blasting every soldier away with the Scatter Gun; their struggle was very distant from everyone else's. They battled alone in a faraway corner of the room, probably to not accidentally shoot teammates. Keira and Jem fought side-by-side, keeping all nearby troopers in sight. She shot energy balls at a few towering Paladins to keep them at bay, while he parried attacks from advancing troopers. Sage and Murray were doing a whacky joint-attack consisting of the hippo spinning the village man by his ankles in circles; Sage had his sword outstretched so he could cut down every soldier in their whirly path.

Back upstairs, the four heroes heard a hot splashing sound behind them. They turned around to see hot lava pouring down from the spiral staircase's heights; Reiden must have been angry…

Link turned back around and said, "Well, what are we waiting for? We must join them!" He vaulted over the banister and into the chaos, Sora, Kairi, and Crash following suit.

After landing, the bandicoot instructed, "Sora and Kairi, I need you two to go tell Jak and Daxter to retreat outside. Link, do the same for Murray and Sage so we can finish up Bentley's plan!"

When they agreed, Crash plowed through guards with his forearms to get to Keira and Jem. When Keira saw the orange creature coming, he said, "Crash, it's you! Were you successful in getting the last shard?"

He answered, "Yeah, but this ain't the last piece. Another guy has it—I'll tell you all about it later! Here, Keira, take this!"

"This is a pretty huge piece," she commented. Suddenly, she whipped around to blast an advancing Paladin in the face. It fell down, crushing a few unlucky Stone Troopers. The blue-haired girl said, "Maybe we should talk outside!"

Jem, Keira, and Crash all ran for the front door. Out from a crowd of Stone Troopers, Link, Murray, and Sage crashed through. The trio joined the other trio, making a…hexio? Anyway, all six heroes darted past guards and to the large front door of Reiden's fortress.

While they made for the exit, the Keybladers mowed through guards until the Dynamic Duo was in sight. Sora called to them, "Jak, Daxter, it's time to head out!"

Daxter said evilly, "Alright, this is where the real fun starts!"

Jak changed the mod on his Morph Gun to a purple mod. Curious, Kairi asked, "What are you about to do?"

"Just stand back…" Jak raised the gun and aimed it at a thicket of troopers marching to their position.

While Jak aimed, Daxter talked. He said plainly, "He's basically about to clear a path to the door."

Sora asked, "With what? That little gun?"

Daxter answered, "Yes, ma' boy. Side effects may include nausea, temporary blindness, saying, 'OH MY GOD,' upset stomach, mood swings, and death."

Jak charged a large blue voltage of energy at the end of the gun, which was a type of skull trophy. Kairi stared directly at the entity and said glumly, "I didn't like the sound of whatever you just said…"

Jak released the trigger on the gun; the blue charge zapped through the air electrifying and shortly exploding every trooper that came within five feet of it. Its path ended when it hit the door, sputtering all over the wood.

In the end, every soldier was reduced to ash and rubble. The aftermath was a bit shocking. (See what I did there?)

Jak said, "That should do it. Shall we?"

The Keybaders stood, mouth agape, staring at the mess. Daxter said slyly, "Lemme know when you experience the rest of the side effects."

All ten heroes made it outside through the large wooden doors of Reiden's lair. The orange sun cracked above the high mountains, giving the landscape an early morning glow. Outside, Team Crazy Hair and Crossbow met up with Dead Bird and Clanker, plus thirty or so children.

Sage dropped his shield and sword and ran to his daughter, Paige. (It was the girl who stole from Lil back in the dungeon.) Sage hugged his daughter closely, as she did the same. "Thank grace you're healthy, Paige."

The little girl smiled and said, "To be honest, we were never in any real danger—"

"—To think that I, Sage Dukari, rescued his own daughter from certain death in a dark dungeon…man, I am good!"

"Whatever, Daddy," Paige responded, still smiling.

Riku ushered Lil forward to Mr. Huli. The silver haired boy said, "I think this little angel belongs to you, Sir."

"Lil!" Jem knelt down to embrace and kiss his child. "Thank the lord you're safe…Thank you, Mr. Riku."

"Hey, don't mention, man."

Jem also added, "I'd also like to thank you for not violating my other daughter."

Riku turned blue; he laughed loudly and said, "Don't be silly sir, I would never even think to…"

Jak interrupted, "Keira, why don't you go ahead and destroy that rock?"

"Good idea…" The Eco Sage-in-training removed the rock from her blue jacket's front pocket. She held it tightly in her hand and, eventually, the green rock began evaporating in black dust. "There, that should do it."

Meanwhile, the other children made a run for the village, joining their families. Suddenly, Reiden and an army of Stone Troopers ranging from two hundred to three hundred burst through the fort's front entrance. The warlord glared at the heroes and the free children. He exclaimed, "Wait, what are those kids doin' out from the dungeon?"

Brandishing his wrench, Ratchet said, "We freed them, slave-driver!"

Heavily frustrated, Reiden said, "Aw, you can't be freakin' serious! They were supposed to become weapon specialists in my future sweatshop!"

Crunch repeated, "Sweatshop? Oh, man, you really are a bad dude."

"Yeah? Well allow me to get even worse. After I'm through killing every single one of you zeroes, I'm gonna rip those filthy villagers apart, piece by piece."

Bentley smirked and leaned back in his chair. He said, "Not happenin'."

"Why…? Oh." Reiden Long looked beyond the heroes to the village; around forty to fifty village men with spears, metal chisels, and blunt axes stood, glaring at Reiden and his rock soldiers with malice. Basically, they were using the tools Reiden's troops gave them for excavating rocks. Reiden sighed heavily, and gave a sour look to his Captain Trooper. "…So, I'm guessing you never took away the tools when they were done working…ever?"

The captain said sheepishly, "No…man, we are horrible."

The annoyed emperor replied, "Doesn't matter, they're all gonna die, anyways." He turned back to the heroes and villagers. "You're all outnumbered!"

Coco said, "That may be, but if you forgot, your army sucks!"

With one last glare at his own dimwitted army, Lord Reiden cried, "RANGA FE! GAI DAO FE!" Instantly, his army charged, consisting of Stone Troopers sprinting with shields and swords, Cavalry Troopers riding at full speed, and Paladins stomping the field, spiked clubs dragging on the ground.

Aku Aku floated to Crash and asked, "Plan?"

"Um…yeah!" Crash began issuing orders, "We're gonna need about twelve guys squadding with the villagers and making sure there's the least amount of…um…"

Keira suggested, "You mean casualties?"

"Yeah! Casualties. Make sure there are none of those, if you can. The others will come with me to attack Reiden head-on! Now let's have war!"

Jem and Sage were the first to join their Buru comrades; Crunch, Sly, Sora, Kairi, Riku, Donald, Goofy, Bentley, and Ratchet and Clank followed them. That left Jak, Daxter, Keira, Murray, Link, Coco, Aku Aku, and Crash to fight Reiden. They charged around the stampede of troopers, leaving the other ten heroes and village rebels to face the rocky rush…

The war began when Riku's Way to the Dawn dissolved a Cavalry Trooper's rock steed; the boy jumped over a Paladin's head, dragging his Keyblade into its skull, and landed, letting the beastly trooper crash to the ground behind him. Riku continued his run whilst X-slashing at three Stone Troopers that got in his narrow path.

Donald summoned a Thunder Spell to destroy three rock guards and a horseman. Goofy charged rhino-style at four Stone Troopers; they tried with no luck to parry the court knight's attack with their own shield, which only resulted in them clashing up against each other like a backed up train.

Bentley activated the hydraulics mod on his chair; the two smaller wheels on the chair extended while the bigger ones started to spin the whole turtle-borg around, resulting in a vortex of wheels thrashing about. Ratchet and Clank and Sly used their wrench and cane to trip up the legs of a bulking Paladin. It fell forward, allowing Crunch to come up and punch its face in. The burly bandicoot's robo-arm transformed into the Sonic Blaster, enabling him to shoot a blue laser. He moved his arm sideways, dragging the laser, of which disintegrated nine troopers and four horsemen in it's deadly path.

Sora and Kairi ran full speed, at a Paladin, Keyblades drawn. Sora shouted, "You take left, I'll get right!" Both Keybladers jumped up and buried there weapons into the large soldier's neck, hitting on each of their respective sides. After extracting their Keyblades, they jumped off and took fighting stances, back-to-back. Nineteen Stone Troopers surrounded the pair, clanging their cutlasses in aching anxiety. Kairi asked, "Isn't this the part where you say something cool?"

"Not even if you paid me," Sora answered.

Kairi grinned. "Hmph. Job well-done, Sora."

Leading a four-man squad, Jem burst through one side of the circle that surrounded Sora and Kairi. He asked with a battle-ready smile, "Need a hand?"

Kairi commented, "Coolest Thing Said Award goes to him."

* * *

Meanwhile, the eight heroes chased after the floating overlord while he aimlessly chucked fireballs at his pursuers. They each ran in between the blasts, letting them explode the earth behind them. Reiden raised both hands to forge a fireball with the diameter of three and a half feet. With a deep grunt, the warlord heaved it over his spiky head at the chasers; Link volunteered to intercept the blast with his Hylian shield. The bright inferno pushed Link back as he kept his boots planted firmly on the ground, creating trails in the dirt. Finally it deteriorated, ending Lord Reiden's attack.

"Time's up, Reiden!" exclaimed the witchdoctor mask.

"Not yet!" Reiden shouted, sounding on edge. "Don't you know that right before a boss battle, you have to face his less skilled henchmen first?"

Suddenly, thrity-five regular guards marched from behind Reiden, boasting shields and swords…again.

Murray looked at all of them, glancing left to right. "Oh man, this might be too much, even for The Murray!"

Jak shouted, "Why don't you stop hiding behind your troops and fight like a man!"

"We'll handle him, Jak," Crash informed. "The rest of you keep chasing after him. Coco and I will catch up!"

The bandicootess protested, "WHAT?"

Jak agreed, "Right, just don't take too long. Let's go, people!"

Meanwhile, back at the villagers' battle, eight Paladins started closing in on Sora, Kairi, Jem, and his three comrades. Sora asked, "Man, how are we supposed to get rid of these guys?"

Kairi shrugged, "Beats me. Maybe you should try another one of your summon gems?"

"Kairi, that's a great idea! But which one…" Sora began searching in his magic pants' pockets.

One of Jem's comrades asked, "Summon gem? What the heck is that?"

"It better be a good solution for this problem," said Jem.

"Oh, it is," Kairi half-answered.

"This one!" exclaimed Sora, pulling out a plate-shaped gem with the picture of a snow flake on it. "Santa!"

Suddenly the gem glowed, and, in a burst of light, a fat man in a red coat and hat stood next to the boy. He said in his jolly voice, "Hello, Sora! Have you been a good boy?"

Kairi answered for him, "Nope."

Sora's cheeks reddened. He stuttered, "Wha-whatever—Santa, we really need your help! Can you get rid of these guys?"

Jolly Saint Nick glanced at the teeming Paladins and said with an okay-sign, "No problem, my boy!" Suddenly, Santa Claus ripped off his jacket, revealing his surprisingly toned upper body muscles. He flexed and said, "Stand back, everyone, this going to be messy!"

Everybody, including Jem and his surprised men, took five steps back. Santa brought up his massive arms and slammed them onto the ground, creating a fault; it trailed through the earth and to the stupidly advancing Paladins. The fissure grew as it approached the monsters and ultimately caused them to fall into the earth's crevice. All eight of them disappeared into the darkness of the lithosphere.

Joyously, Sora shouted, "YES! Thanks, surprisingly-buff Santa!"

"You're welcome, little Sora. Now it's time for me to get back to the North Pole. I have a lot of work to do tonight, ho, ho, ho!"

Sora begged, "Wait, before you go, can you tell me what you got me for Christmas?"

Kairi said, "Yeah, me, too!"

Santa winked. He reached out two colossal arms and placed them on each teenager's shoulder. He said warmly, "You two already have what you want…I mean seriously, Keyblades aren't enough?" Immediately, he let go and said, "Now have a merry Christmas and a happy new year! Oh, and can you give this to Crash? Thanks." He handed Kairi a small burlap sack. It felt weightless. In another burst of light, Kringle disappeared.

Kairi pondered as she held the small bag, "I wonder what this might be…Anyways, I'm pretty sure he meant to say we have each other, Sora."

Sora laughed sarcastically. "Right. Each other. And no brand new Exstation 3."

Jem interrupted their moment by saying, "That is very touching, but may I remind you that we are in a war?"

"Right, let's keep fighting!" Sora drew his Ultima. "This battle isn't over, yet."

* * *

"Great idea, CRASH!" Coco shrieked as the stone troopers closed in.

"C'mon, we got this!" Crash replied. "Coco, look out!"

She turned around, only to find nothing threatening her. As she turned back around, she said, "What are you talking a—AHH!"

When she looked at Crash, she noticed he had gone through a significant change: His face looked like it had been rotting in a coffin, with bloodshot eyes and dingy fur. For some reason, his biker jacket was a greenish color, and it looked incredibly tattered. The jacket was opened, revealing the bandicoot's ribcage. His hands were bones, too, as if his skin had decomposed. His faded blue pants had many holes ripped through them, much like the condition of his shoes.

Coco exclaimed, "Crash, what the heck happened to you?"

Suddenly, the thirty five troopers stood behind him, like a dance posse. And they did just that: dance. They initiated Crash's dance sequence, scoring every move. Then, they spun around and moved to the left, but a few guards missed the move and wound up colliding and destroying each other. However, they continued the jig while Crash sang:

_'Cause this is thriller, thriller night!  
And no one's gonna save you from the beast about strike…  
You know it's thriller, thriller night!  
You're fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller tonight!_

By this time, half of the posse had killed themselves dancing, like accidentally decapitating the soldiers next to them.

Then, Crash did his signature move: spinning around like a twister. THAT obviously proved too difficult for the remaining guards as they all collided while trying spin around. Coco clapped and said, "Great job, Crash!"

As she walked up to him, she asked, "But why do you look like that?"

Crash looked up and screamed, "GO AWAY!" He began walking up on his frightened sister.

She backed up and tripped, falling backwards. She screamed and begged, "No, please don't kill me!"

Suddenly, a warm and furry hand clasped hers. She looked up to see her normal older brother, skin intact. He asked her, "What's wrong with you? C'mon, we have a war to fight!" He laughed. "You know, you worry me sometimes…"

Coco panted and stood up. "Right…sorry about that…"

As they ran to catch up with the others and Reiden, Crash's eyes turned red and he started laughing maniacally. Coco looked straight at him and said, "It's Christmas, not Halloween!"

"Oh, sorry!"

They continued their run through the morning lit battlefield.

* * *

_Well, happy Christmas Eve, everybody! And happy Hanukah, and Happy Kwanza! __I'd like to thank everyone who has read, reviewed, and favorited my story so far. Not bad for story number one, eh?_

_So, the great battle has begun, and the villagers have finally taken a stand against Reiden's tyranny. The children are safe with their mothers, the second-to-last Oni-shard has been destroyed, and another Michael Jackson tribute has been delivered. It's like a Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanza miracle!_

_Next time on Precursors of Twilight, the battle comes to a dramatic close, and Twilight's Precursors show up for the party! With their powers, is it possible for Link to go…wolf? And what was in the little sack Santa gave Kairi? All that revealed in the next action-packed chapter, **From the Inside**!_


	30. From the Inside

Chapter 30: From the Inside

Deep in the heavens of Hyrule…

In an airy lodge, the precursor known as Glennatus lounged in his reclining chair. With eyes closed, he scratched at his crazy orange hair, thinking deeply. _Man, I wish I could do more to help those guys. Yesterday, we just figured out that they're actually alive, thanks to their faint life signals. And that can only mean whatever's blocking our powers is somehow getting weaker. But we still can't get anywhere near the place. At this rate, I don't know how much longer they'll last. _

Suddenly, Orphco, Gladdus, and the General appeared in the middle of Glen's sanctuary. Orphco peered down at the seemingly slumbering precursor. Glen opened one orange eye to look at the three Precursors and said very casually, "You know, I really hate it when you guys do that."

The general exclaimed, "Egad! How could you sleep on the job, private?"

"C'mon, get up, we have something important to tell you!" Gladdus peeved.

Orphco cut in, "Glen, there's been a new development. We now have full contact with the heroes in Buru Village."

Glen shot up from his comfortable position and exclaimed, "What—how?"

Gladdus replied, "Turns out, Reiden was using some kind of cursed rock that repels magical beings like us."

"And Matthew Mcconaughey," added her father.

Glen rubbed his goatee between his index finger and thumb. He said, "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go help them!"

"Slow it down," said Orpcho. "We're not ALL going down there to assist them."

"Huh? Why not?"

"There's a greater chance of us all being destroyed, of course. So that's why I'm sending only you, Gladdus, and Eurathaccus to aide them in their battle."

Glen's expression shot down as he said, "Great plan. Send a war-psycho…to a war."

The general puffed out his chest and said sternly, "I ain't no psycho!"

Glen stood up and impolitely removed the general's marine hat. Instantly, the war veteran dropped to a combat-crawl, his eyes shooting in all directions. He loudly muttered to himself, "Darn it! They took Scottie and Patterson and left me for dead! But they won't know what's coming when I shove that potato down their—anti-air mortars! Woo-hoo, I'll watch them burn! BURN!"

Gladdus took the hat from Glen and slapped it back on her father's head. He rubbed his eyes, as if just waking up. Gladdus said, "C'mon, let's go, Rambo."

Orphco saluted, "Farewell."

In three flashes of light, they vanished from the sanctuary, Earth-bound.

Steadily, Reiden's power inflated like a hot air balloon. With another explosion of dirt and dust, the overlord held out his fist and hot flames once again enshrouded his entire body. He opened his red eyes to see Jak, Daxter, Keira, Coco, Crash, Aku Aku, Link, and Murray all standing their ground. He laughed out loud and shouted, "Oh, man, you fools' faces right before you all get massacred is friggin' priceless!" He laughed even harder, sounding deranged. "I LOVE IT!"

Keira muttered, "This guy's a psycho…"

Daxter muttered back, "Yeah, and we thought Erol was crazy…"

Jak also muttered to Keira, "And you wanted to date Erol…"

Keira muttered back, sounding annoyed, "Omigosh—get over it! I chose you, so be happy!"

Jak muttered back, "Maybe I will."

Keira muttered back, "Maybe you should!"

Jak muttered back, "Maybe—!"

Daxter poked his head in between the bickering couple and said in a very angry-mom tone, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but this is neither the time nor place to be quarreling!"

Reiden yelled, "HEY! I'm about to go on a killing-spree, so quit bickering over there!"

With Aku Aku floating by his side, Crash held up his fist to the powered-up emperor. He said calmly, "Ready when you are, Reiden."

"Alright, let's start this bloodbath—"

"HEY, CRASH! WAIT!"

The heroes heard the voice from the behind them. Reiden sighed, "What NOW?" He looked forward to see Princess Kairi sprinting at full speed to join the heroes. She was holding a small burlap bag of sorts.

When she finally reached the surprised bandicoot, she paused for air, and said, "Hey, guys."

Curiously, Crash asked, "What's up? Is something wrong?"

"No, we're fine. Santa Claus came by and told me to give you this," she held up the bag, "to you."

Crash took the bag and examined it deeply. He asked, "Well, what is it?"

"I don't know, just open it!"

"What if it's a bomb?"

Aku Aku floated down to the bandicoot's level and exclaimed, "Just open the bag, Crash! Santa doesn't want to bomb you!"

"Okay…" He slowly unlaced the knot. "Don't blame me if we're all dead…"

Joking, Coco interjected, "I'll never speak to you again if we die."

He slowly pulled the strings out of the loops of the bag. Suddenly, he stopped and asked, "Hey, if it's not a bomb, can we blow it up, anyway?"

"Today, Crash! I have a war to get back to!" Kairi demanded. After receiving a look from each bandicoot and floating mask, she added, "I kinda wanna see what's in the bag, too…"

Obviously fed up with everyone's stalling, Reiden proposed, "Look, if he won't open the dang present, I'll do it!"

As the emperor began walking in Crash's direction, leaving flaming footprints, the bandicoot jerked the bag away and said, "No way, this is mine!" Finally, Crash reached inside the small bag and felt something metallic. He reached further deep into the bag, only to figure out that it didn't have a bottom. Being brave, Crash pulled out whatever it was.

First, a hilt showed, then a holstered sword complete with a black strap came into everyone's view. Dropping the bag, Crash held up the sword like some kind of mysterious artifact (which it was). He whispered, "What the…" He removed the black holster to reveal a bluish-silver blade that reached about three feet long by three inches wide. Near the hilt, some kind of sacred, otherworldly scripture was sculpted on the blade in a spiral fashion.

Now everyone, including Link and Murray, was extremely interested. When Crash dropped the bag, a note had fallen out. Coco picked it up and read it out loud: _"Thanks for being such a good boy—_whatever—_so I'd like to give you a gift from your ancestors. Your father used the same blade. Good luck against Reiden! Love, Santa."_

Crash stopped marveling at the weapon and repeated, "Our father?"

"That's touching. Now you can die with your pop's sword laid across your chest. A true honor, don't you think?" Reiden began unhooking the rotating arm-blade weapons from his wrists. He dropped the blades and the contraptions that allowed them to spin. He also removed his upper body armor, which clanged to the ground. Now bare-chested, Reiden shouted, "Prepare to DIE!"

His entire body dispersed into blue flames and disappeared; the same flames appeared next to Link, who slashed at them, but he only managed to split the fire and slightly heat up his own sword. Suddenly, the Hylian felt a strike from behind him brush out his legs and he fell on his side. Instinctively, Link rolled to avoid a fiery punch to the earth. However, when he gained his balance, there was no emperor in sight.

Link yelled, "Everyone, focus! He's moving at a high speed!"

Crash turned to the witchdoctor mask and asked, "Aku, can you take Kairi back to the other war safely?"

The mask answered, "Can do, my boy! I'll be back!"

While he and the princess teleported, Crash was suddenly blind-sighted by a heavy punch in the mouth. He staggered back a little, obviously dizzy. He drew his sword from the holster and took a battle ready position while trying to shake away the dizziness. Suddenly, his whole body was thrust down to the ground. Immediately, he felt a hot rush shoot above him; he had narrowly missed a fire blast. He looked up to see that it was The Murray who had saved him.

The hippopotamus said, "Be careful, little buddy!"

"Thanks Mur—JAK, WATCH OUT!" Crash yelled after seeing an inferno rocketing down from the sky to Jak's position.

Jak quickly jumped out of the way and shot his Blaster at the explosion, thinking Reiden was at the base of it. Noticing the shots were going straight through, Daxter said, "He ain't in there, Jak!"

Link dove to their position with shield drawn to deflect an incoming fire blast that the duo apparently hadn't seen.

Jak thought out loud, "Wait, where's Keira?"

"That's her name?" said Reiden's voice from above. Everyone looked up to see Reiden holding the girl by her wrists as she dangled in front of him, probably to keep her from shooting Eco blasts at him. "I like that name. She's pretty, too." As she struggled to get loose, he spoke into her ear, "Are you afraid of heights, sweetheart?"

As a response, Keira sharply brought her heel up to the tyrant's manly area. She felt a metal barrier of some kind. "What the…?"

Reiden answered, "Imported metal protection cup. I came prepared!"

Back on the ground, Daxter tried to warn Jak, "Jak—"

Jak ignored the ottsel, "REIDEN!"

Daxter tried again, "I'm telling you, don't say—"

"LET HER GO!" Jak yelled up to the overlord.

Reiden said casually, "Kay." He released his grip around Keira's wrists and let her plummet.

"Told ya…" whispered Daxter, who hopped from Jak's shoulder to Link's. "Maybe this guy will listen to me."

Immediately, Jak summoned his Light powers and sprouted blue wings from his back. He jumped and flapped them, propelling himself upwards to the falling girl. She landed in his arms; he maneuvered her to his left arm and drew his Blaster with his right. While flapping his wings in place, he fired after the emperor, who laughed and flew circles around Jak and Keira.

After missing Reiden's body by inches, Jak ditched trying to shoot him and hovered to the ground near Murray and Link, releasing Keira.

The aggravated hippo griped, "How are we supposed to beat this guy if we can't even SEE him?"

"There's got to be a way…" Link muttered, nervously looking around to detect Reiden's next attack.

Suddenly, Coco had a notion: whenever Reiden appears and vanishes, blue flames are suspended in the air of that area. That means, of course, they should be able to feel the heat right before he appears. But the only reason why Reiden can travel so fast is because the air is so dry…

"Brain-Blast!" Coco shouted.

Sounding confused and offended, Crash retorted, "I'm sorry, _what?"_

"I have a plan!"

Link and Daxter turned around to face the bandicootess. The ottsel said, "Oh, thank God! I thought he woulda picked off at least three of us before anyone had any idea of what to do!"

Link asked, "What've you schemed?"

"Everyone, just follow me to the creek!" Coco hinted.

Murray raised a brow. "You mean the one right next to the camp? Isn't that a little close to the women and children?"

"They'll be fine—no time to explain, just come on!"

With the others following, Coco broke off into a run in the direction of the rest of the battle. She ran only ten feet before flames erupted in front of her and took the form of the evil overlord. He formed into a position looking like he was about throw a kick from his left foot. While suspended in that position, Reiden said grittily, "No, you don't—!"

Right before Reiden threw his kick, Crash yelled, "Watch out, Coco!" He sheathed his new sword and dashed over to his frozen sister and knocked her aside. This resulted in him receiving the fiery kick full-on in the side of his ribs. The bandicoot dropped immediately from the pain.

From the ground, Coco attempted to scream for him, but decided to keep it quiet. She quickly stood up and directed, "Murray, I need you to help Crash. Everyone else, stay on me!"

Murray replied, "Got it, boss." While Jak, Keira, Link, and Daxter followed closely behind Coco again, Murray dashed over to the fallen bandicoot and tried picking him up, but Crash screamed again in pain. "Whoa, this might take awhile…"

Meanwhile, Coco ran at full speed at the edge of the battle with Stone Troopers. Gradually, she felt the air around her get hot and dry. She ignored it and kept running, however staying vigilant.

From behind her, Keira perceived Reiden's arrival as well. She said over the noises of battle, "Looks like Reiden's gonna try another surprise attack, guys!"

The blue flames did appear; they seemed to travel along with the wind on Coco's right side, however, they did not take the shape of Reiden's body. Instead, openings in the fire represented two eyes and a mouth. With Reiden's voice, it chuckled evilly, the mouth moving to his words:

"_That's pretty messed up. No—VERY messed up. To leave your brother back there like road-kill right after he saves you…I wouldn't be able to do something like that…He probably saved your life, now that I think about it. He's a little taller, and I was aiming for your neck."_

The whole time he talked, Coco had tried her best to ignore his remarks, but soon felt tears welling up in her eyes. How _could _she just leave him like that?

"Don't listen to 'em, Coco!" shouted Keira, a few steps behind. "He's only trying to get in your head!"

Soon, a half-charred grassy area came into view, a waterway passing through. Over the creek was the entrance to the encampment, but that wasn't their destination. Reiden's flames suddenly took form of his flaming, floating body with his arms crossed. He had materialized again in front of Coco, blocking her path as she and the others stood knee-deep in the creek. The overlord looked over his bare, fire-lit shoulder to see the half-burnt encampment and asked, "All that running, and you take me here? Did you want me to finish the job?"

Jak, Link, Keira, and Daxter all waited for Coco to answer, for they knew nothing of her plan. The bandicootess replied to him in a half-confident tone, "Um, no, you'll have time to do that later!"

"Then why am I here? Oh, now I get it. This is where you want your graves, right? 'Cuz a battlefield doesn't suit the likes of any of you."

Once again, the other four warriors shot Coco a please-tell-me-you-have-a-plan look. Coco looked up at Reiden and said, "I just wanted to tell you…your hairdo is super STUPID!"

Anger ignited in Reiden's eyes. "What 'chu say?"

Receiving even heavier looks from her teammates, Coco continued, "Yeah, it looks like a blowfish fell in tar and landed on your head!"

"No one says that about my hair! I got it done by Larxene, and you won't believe all the lighting I had to go through to get it looking like this! BURN!"

As the enraged emperor began charging fire blasts in both his hands, Daxter commented, "I would just like to say that, so far, your plan SUCKS!"

"RUN!" Link yelled as the blast left Reiden's hands.

The five took off down the creek, running a bit slower due to the depth of the water. The blast hit the water behind them, splashing everyone and everywhere. Also, steam rose up everywhere, feeling like a sauna. Suddenly, Link stopped in place and breathed in the water vapors. This reminded him of a dream he once had, standing in hot water…no wait, it was ice cold.

Suddenly (and slightly accidentally), Link finally understood Coco's plan. From his right shoulder, Daxter exclaimed, "Um, Earth to Elf Boy! Yeah, I don't enjoy the thought of my fur catching fire, so RUN, PLEASE!"

And just like that, the Hylian Hero broke off at a run again, narrowly missing another explosion from Reiden. More steam rose in the air…

Coco finally led the others to the creek's deposit. It was a wide pond that rose to the middle of the Link's thigh, wetting the hem of his green tunic. They all stopped and waited for the overlord to emerge from the thick mist, noticing that he was moving a little slower than usual.

"Alright, Coco," Jak huffed, sweating. "You wanna tell us what's going on?"

"Okay—you know how Reiden keeps vanishing into fire and popping up everywhere? Well, I realized, he needs to be FIRE to do that! And guess where we are!"

Link finished for her, "An extremely humid environment. You couldn't light a match in this place."

The evil emperor himself surfaced from the mist. Actually, he more like staggered from the mist. The flames on his body had diminished, signifying his power was used up. Floating above the water, he stared at his hands in disbelief, not wanting to fathom the fact that he had just been outsmarted by a bunch of clowns.

"I can still kill you fools! I don't need any fire or Mojo powers! I'll—!"

The Gale Boomerang had slammed across his head, ending his monologue and giving him the vision of five Tweety Birds circling his head. Reiden said one last thing, "Ah, rats," and passed out, falling into the water.

Back in the Skeletal Soldier War, the enemy forces were dwindling into the hero's favor. Sage happily sang while he destroyed trooper after trooper, "One trooper, two trooper, three trooper, poor trooper—!"

"Sage, behind you!" called one of his village comrades.

The egotistical warrior whipped around to decapitate two Stone Troopers with his sword. "Ha! I'm a monster!"

Suddenly, he felt the stomping of a REAL monster approaching from behind him. Sage closed his eyes and whispered, "Please let that be a cuddly panda who gives out free hugs and soda." He turned around to find that his wish had obviously not come anywhere near true. He was staring up into the hollow eyes of a Paladin.

As he awaited his beating, he heard a shrill shrieking, as if a kung-fu battle cry. Then, the Paladin froze in mid-stance and fell backwards, dead. Well, not any more alive. Sage looked up from the deceased soldier to a four-foot tall elderly woman wielding two pickaxes.

"Madam Saoki?" Sage was obviously caught off guard by her presence. "Madam, it's dangerous out here! You should be back at the camp!"

The elder replied, "What, did you not just see me completely own that hulkin' monster tryna crush you! I just saved your life! Learn some manners!"

Sage hung his head in shame and apologized, "Forgive me, madam. I am sorry…"

"And?"

Sage pouted and said, "And I'll do all the dishes tonight, GOSH!"

Sora landed on his rear-end a few feet away from them. The Keyblader shook his head and turned to observe both the villagers and said frankly, "Yeah, we're kinda in a war here, so if you'd like to rejoin…"

Sage replied, "Chill, man. We still got plenty of bone-chumps to go around!"

Madam Soaki hiked up her sharp weapons and said casually, "Well, ahem, I'm gonna go chop more o' these suckeroons down." She leapt off both feet and landed onto the head of a skeletal steed. The elder then proceeded to knock off the trooper riding it with her pickaxe and jump back to the earth. Three more Cavalry Troopers charged at Madam Saoki, one behind the other, but she made quick work of them by slashing off two of each horse's legs.

"Man, she's like King Mickey," Sora commented, standing up.

"Hey, that one girl's back!" said Sage, glancing over Sora's shoulder. "Hey, I'll catch you guys later. I gotta make sure Madam Soaki doesn't kill herself with those pickaxes." He ran off in the elder's direction.

Sora turned around to see Kairi and Aku making their way over to them. When the girl and floating mask came in earshot, Sora asked, "Hey, how did everything go?"

Aku answered, "I'm not sure. After she gave Crash his sword, Reiden attacked, and I brought us back here."

"Crash got a new sword? Cool," said Sora. "Well, the battle's almost over."

"I see," said Kairi, observing the scattered troops.

From behind, Crunch, Sly, Ratchet, and Clank plowed through a few soldiers to reach the four. The large, red bandicoot asked, "Hey guys, did you see the others running back to the camp?"

"No," answered Sora. "Why would they do that?"

"Maybe Reiden chased them there," suggested Aku Aku.

Ratchet added, "Yeah, that's what we thought, but then we saw them take off down the creek! Reiden started shooting fire balls at them, too!"

"Maybe we should go and help them," proposed Kairi. "They might need it!"

She summoned her To-Be-Named Keyblade started to break off into a run, but Sora raised his hand, halting her. "Wait a minute, Kairi. Let's check with the communicators before we go head-first into a lava pit."

As the eager princess crossed her arms, Sora removed the comm device from his pants' pocket and dialed IV. While he waited, he noticed two groups of Stone Troopers marching up on them. Sly, Crunch, Ratchet, Clank, Aku, and Kairi all stood in a circle next to Sora. The raccoon twirled his cane and said to the boy, "Don't worry, pal. We got your back!"

After waiting a while, Daxter's voice sounded through the link:

"_Hello! You have reached Orange Lighting. He is not available to take your call right now—"_

"Daxter, this is Sora! What's going on over there?"

"_Please leave a message at the tone…C'mon, Elf-Boy, do it!"_

Link's voice in the background: _"Really do I have to?"_

"_Do it, I say!"_

Link sighed and said robotically, _"Beeeeeeeep."_

Sora and co. were now parrying sword strikes from the Troopers (Aku Aku shot Mojo blasts from his mouth). He yelled into the communicator, "DAXTER! We don't have time for your games!" Shortly after saying that, Sora spun around to dismember a soldier's arm.

"_Give me that!" _chastised Jak's voice. After a few shuffling noises, Jak's voice rang through, _"Sora, we're fine. We've beaten Reiden, thanks to Coco's plan. We'll meet you back in the battlefield soon."_

"That's great! Just hurry!"

Sly Cooper swiped his cane to stun three troops at once. He quickly turned around to the Keyblader and asked, "So what—whoa!—what happened over there?"

Sora leapt at a scared trooper, giving it the X slash. He backed up, rolling the Ultima in his hand while saying, "They somehow found a way to beat Reiden! They're coming back to join us right now."

"Hopefully soon," said Kairi, who had hacked a soldier in half.

A Paladin slammed his club down on Ratchet's Omniwrench, sending the Lombax on his back. While he struggled to keep the blunt object from crushing his body, Clank mumbled with his face in the dirt, "And quickly."

Sly leapt up to the Paladin's head and positioned the length of the cane under its rock mandible and pulled back. Instantly, it loosened its hold over Ratchet and Clank and fumbled wildly. While trying to rid itself of the raccoon, it stepped on a few of its comrades. Finally, the burly Paladin fell flat on its back; Crunch followed up with a heavy punch to its stone face, completely scattering its skull.

Suddenly, the last Stone Trooper of the attack threw down his sword and angrily yelled, "That's IT! I'm tired of seeing my buddies get cut to pieces like CHEESE! I'm gonna do something about this, darn it, cuz I'm sick of it!" The trooper removed a book of matches from under his stone ribs. He took one out, lit it, and intentionally dropped it on his rock metatarsals (his mid-foot). Instantly, his whole body set on fire, if that's even organically possible.

The trooper screamed like a mad-mineral, "AHAHAWAHA! NOW I'M GONNA SHOW YOU WHAT IT'S LIKE!"

Like a rabid monkey with a death wish, the flaming soldier ran at Kairi with arms flailing. Unfortunately, a menacing beetle crawled directly across the trooper's path, causing him to trip and fall inches in front of Kairi.

Kairi stared down at the flaming mess with contempt. She commented, "That was stupid…"

Coco trudged through the water, searching for the fallen emperor's body. The others were standing on the pond's grassy coast, messing with the communicator. Finally, she found a large white husk in black pants in the calm water, Reiden's body. She lifted him up by his hair with the lower half of his body still submerged. His eyes were closed and his face was completely soaked. Reiden's lower lip hung open ajar, water dripping out.

The bandicootess said, "Hmph, he looks scary even when he's dead…"

From behind her, Daxter called out, "Hey, bandibabe, we told the others about beatin' Reiden, so let's go already."

"Right," Coco called back, ignoring the "bandibabe" comment. She turned back to give the fallen emperor one last look before saying, "At least we won't have to look at your ugly face anymore…"

Just as her grip on his hair was about to release, Reiden's eyelids exploded open and he yelled, "WHO'S UGLY?"

Coco jumped and let go of Reiden's spikes. She paced backwards in the water, eyes wide open and mouth agape. She stuttered, "W-What the h—?"

Jak peered over at Coco, trying to figure out what was wrong. Then, he looked over at the conscious and alive Reiden marching over to the frozen bandicootess. "Oh no…"

"What is it?" asked Link turning around; he had just noticed the danger as well. "Oh…"

"Crap…" added the dumbfounded ottsel.

"This—this is impossible!" Keira stumbled.

"No," said Reiden with a smirk, "this is destiny." He reached his right hand out in front of the marsupial's chest and said, "Here, I may not be able to utilize my fire-bending powers, but I still know Mojo." Instead of fire, a wave of pure kinetic energy pushed Coco with great effect; her body flew high above the heads of Jak, Link, Keira, and Daxter, who all gaped in horror. However, Coco still seemed to be in her frozen state while airborne. Thinking to herself, she was sure that her plan would work…

In orientation to the rest of the great battle taking place, the bandicootess was actually flying towards the battlefield. Out from nowhere, a figure in blue pants and a yellow jacket dashed to catch the falling bandicoot in his arms. A cartoony voice sighed, "Ah…how long am I gonna be savin' people like this?"

Coco stepped down to the ground and exclaimed, "Crash? You're not dead or paralyzed?"

Sounding like a brat, he replied, "Uh—no! He kicked me in the side, not the back. Duh. And so much for 'no soldier left behind!'" Crash joked.

Coco took it personally. "Oh…sorry."

"Huh? Oh, I was just kidding. It didn't hurt that bad after the first three agonizing minutes. Then Murray sacrificed a chunk of his health bar to give me an extra health boost!"

Coming into view, The Murray was slowly jogging and panting heavily. In between breaths, the hippo said, "Alright…okay…The Murray…is here…don't start the battle…without me…just gimme a minute to catch my…" At that, he passed out.

Out from the grassy area, Jak, Keira, Link, and Daxter emerged, the emperor hot on their heels. They ran past Crash, Coco, and Murray; Keira said briefly, "C'mon guys, straight to the battle!"

"Off your butt, Murray!" commanded Daxter, riding on Jak's right shoulder again.

"And that should be the last of 'em!" celebrated Bentley, now looking at the Trooper-free battlefield. The villagers he was fighting with, including Jem and Madam Saoki, all raised their weapons and cried to the heavens in merriment. They had just fought to have their land back, and they had just succeeded. Or so they thought.

Through all the cheering of men (and old lady), Riku, Donald, and Goofy emerged to join Bentley.

"Hey guys—Daxter's just told me that Reiden has been defeated!" At this, the villagers celebrated even louder; Goofy picked Donald up and spun him around, saying "A-hyuck!" and "Oh boy!" and all their other catch phrases.

"No way!" exclaimed an excited Riku. "Wh—how—who—?"

Bentley interrupted, "Heck, I don't even know the details. I guess we'll just have to meet up with…oh no…" The turtle's expression fell twelve stories as he saw a single man rising up in the distance. He noticed the man ascending up into the air with a dark aura surrounding him like storm clouds. "Reiden…"

The village men also saw Lord Reiden powering up off in the distance. Their cheering and laughter ended like a train wreck, slowly and painfully.

Suddenly, Goofy remembered something. "Uh-oh…the rest of our buds are over there—we gotta help!"

"Oh, you're right! They're gonna get annihilated!" Riku thought out loud. With a serious tone, he said, "Let's go."

"Looks like he's a bit harder to defeat than we thought," said Coco, understating things a bit.

She, Jak, Link, Keira, Daxter, Murray, and Crash had joined Sora, Kairi, Aku Aku, Ratchet, Clank, Sly, and Crunch on the battlefield. They also joined them in marveling at the ever-increasing power of Reiden Long.

Up in the air, Reiden continued to strengthen his power, all while smirking down at his soon-to-be victims. He went in a meditating position, concentrating very hard. Suddenly, he called out over the battlefield, "YEMA, GAI DOU A SHIRA! GAI DOU A NAKO! Arise, my minions! Arise, and await my next order!"

On the ground around the apprehensive group of heroes, the stone bones of the fallen troopers began to shake violently. Then, as if they were being pulled by invisible tethers, the bones came together again, forming the vast number of Troopers again. All two hundred eighty-eight Stone, Cavalry, and Paladin Troopers they had previously defeated had just been revived for round two…

And just when the heroes thought all hope for restoring Buru Village was lost, three lights flashed a few meters away from them. Simultaneously, they turned their heads to the right to inspect what caused the sudden fluorescence. There, standing as casual as ever, was Gladdus, Eurathaccus, and Glen.

"Hey, heroes," greeted Glen. "What's up?"

With very stern expressions, the heroes concurrently looked up at the obvious center of attention.

"Oh…now I see. That's that guy who torched a lot of the houses in the Twilight Realm."

Gladdus said, "Anyway, we're here to provide any assistance. Wow…" She looked around at the vast number of Stone Troopers. "You guys don't need help beating these…bone guys, do you?"

Eurathaccus challenged, "Heh! They don't look so tough. I'll fight 'em all with their arms tied around their backs!"

"No, General," Glen corrected. "You mean your arms tied around YOUR back.'"

The general looked confused. "That's stupid. Why in the world would I do that? Then I can't fight!"

From up above, Reiden squinted down at the mysterious new blue people. "Are those…precursors?" He inched downward to get a better view. "No! Those are the Precursors of the Twili! What are they doing here?" After a second of thinking, Reiden relaxed his thoughts and said, "Ah, who cares? They're all weak anyways, I'll just add them to the slaughter."

Back down on Earth, Link suddenly hatched an idea. He disentangled himself from the group of heroes and ran up to the three Twili. Sounding urgent, Link asked, "You there—the female—how much do you weigh?"

Nonchalantly, Gladdus answered, "About fifty six remees. Why?"

"I can't believe you answered that…" Glen said in disbelief. EVERYONE was thinking the same thing.

"I imagine that it is completely in your power to change me to my wolf form, is it not?" Link asked.

"Wolf form…?" All three Precursors repeated in unison.

Glen said in amazement, "He means the sacred beast…"

"We could've used a sacred beast back in 'Nam…" the general thought, sounding nostalgic.

Glen bowed, saying appreciatively, "I would be _honored_ to transform you into the sacred beast."

"HEY!" yelled Gladdus. "He asked me first!"

Link piped up, "Actaully, I'd prefer her. I wouldn't want anyone too heavy riding on my back."

"Ha-ha! He chooses me!" taunted Gladdus.

From the crowd of fourteen heroes behind him, Ratchet asked, "Wait, Link, what exactly are you about to do?"

"Just stand back and you'll see."

Daxter whispered to Sora and Jak, "Something tells me he's about to get all Big-Bad-Jak-like."

Sora asked Jak, "Big-Bad-Jak?" But the long-eared man shook his head, as if to save it for a later conversation.

Suddenly, Daxter cursed, "Crap, I should've used a big-bad-wolf pun. That would've fit so perfectly."

Meanwhile, up in the air, Reiden was planning his attack. "Okay first, I'll order my men to start attacking. After they fail to kill anyone, I'll go Dragon Form, and then, I'll eat them! No wait, heroes give me indigestion. Man, I wonder what they're talkin' about down there. Hmph. If they're planning, they're wasting their time…"

"So, Link, you ready?" asked Gladdus. "Alright then, I'm going to create a miniature rift from the Twilight Realm to start the transforming process, and then I'll use my own powers to maintain the sacred beasts' form. Pretty smart, huh?"

Link thanked, "Yes, very!" He warned everyone, "You should all stand back when this happens. Who knows what the Realm will do to any of you."

Everyone agreed and walked off about ten meters. Once they were off a good distance, Gladdus summoned her realm-rifting powers. However, while everyone was still walking, Sora noticed the absence of a communicator in his pocket. He turned around and saw the shiny object where he was previously standing.

Apparently, Kairi had read his mind because she chastised, "Sora, don't even think about it. Just leave it!"

"But what if it gets lost forever in that Twilight Realm? I have to at least try."

"Sora, don't try it."

"Look, she's still powering up! I can make it over there—piece o' cake!" And at that, he broke away in a light jog.

Link's back was turned on him, and Gladdus was in deep concentration. Neither noticed the boy picking up the communicator five feet behind Link. Glen and Eurathaccus were busy bickering about what the "sacred beast" looks like, so neither of them saw Sora, either.

While the others were still walking, Crash was the first to reach a distance of ten meters; he turned around and looked at Sora pocketing the comm device. Seeing Sora stand that close to danger, Crash thought the boy hadn't heard the warning Link had given, so he yelled at the top of his lungs, "SORA! SORA! SORA! LOOK OUT!"

Crash's screaming threw Sora off guard, as the boy thought Reiden was launching another attack from above. Sora drew his Ultima and began desperately scouring the skies, not moving from his dangerous location.

Now everyone, including Glen and Eurathaccus, had turned to see the boy standing, searching for no attack. Gladdus, however, remained in her deep trance…

Link had turned around to shout, "Sora, what are you DOING? GET BACK!"

From the dark gray clouds above, a break made way for a bright white light to shine through and down to the earth. The lights disturbed Reiden's deep planning session. He cursed, "Dang cirrus clouds, now I gotta start the plan all over again!"

The brilliant fluorescence hit the area Gladdus, Link, and Sora were standing. At the last minute, Link had tired to push Sora away with his left hand, but noticed white fur sprouting from his fingers and under his hand armor. Instantly, he knelt on one knee, giving in to the transformation's heavy influence.

Light engulfed the three, completely blinding the other speculating heroes. The emperor suddenly became interested in the activity below him. He asked himself silently, "What the heck are they doing down there?"

Riku, Bentley, Donald, and Goofy stopped in their tracks to observe the phenomenon. The four had managed to cover a great distance, passing up the fortress and many soldiers in standby mode; they were now only meters away from the other twelve heroes watching the silhouettes of Sora and Link transform.

Donald squinted at the profiles in the column of light. He deducted, "Uh-oh, I think Sora's in there!"

"Yeah, I think you're right!" Riku concurred.

The light thinned until it stopped shining. Gladdus opened her eyes to see her work. Indeed, there was a sacred beast, but a different character stood next to it.

In order of everyone's interest, the animal of the transformed duo caught their attention first: a dark grayish wolf stood on all fours where Link had previously knelt. The beast actually had long hair sprouting from its skull; it aligned with its dark gray back. The beast's underside was white, including its legs, the underside of its tail, and a diamond design on its forehead. Around its left foreleg was a metal shackle, and on that leg's paw was a faint symbol of three triangles stacked on each other.

Wolf Link slowly brought up his head and opened his blue eyes. When he turned to see the person standing next him, his ears went up from extreme curiosity, jangling the blue hoop earrings.

Now that everyone had gotten a good look a Link in his sacred beast form, they decided it was time to give the other creature their attention. He was a young man standing in a long, black overcoat that stopped down at his black shoes. The torso of the young man's jacket hugged his slim body. With the hood pulled over his head, light blonde hair covered his eyes. His cloak had the function of being zipped from the top and bottom; the top was zipped all the way up to his bare neck, whereas the bottom zipper was opened all the way up to his waistline.

From up above, Reiden shouted down, "I don't know what you idiots are planning—or doing—but I'm gonna start the attack anyway, so prepare for more arbitrary warfare! As soon as I get to my castle…"

While the warlord flew off to his fortress, Daxter decided to comment on Wolf Link's appearance. "Wow, Link looks absolutely feral! I wonder if he'll let me ride shotgun on his shoulder…"

Kairi ran off from the group to find out what had happened to Sora. She stopped in front of the young man and grabbed his gloved hands. She tried looking for his hidden eyes while saying, "Sora? Is that you? Please tell me you can hear me, Sora!"

He responded, "Sora…? Nope. Close, though. Put an 'X' in his name."

"Huh?" Kairi pulled back the hood, revealing blue eyes and spiky hair. "…Roxas?"

"Nice talking to you, again, Kairi. Don't worry, Sora'll be back sooner or later. Hopefully later, 'cuz it's cramped in his brain," Roxas joked.

Suddenly, two Keyblades flashed to life in his hands. In his right, a black, wicked looking Keyblade appeared, and in his left, he held a light colored, serene-looking one.

The light colored Keyblade's keychain caught Kairi's attention. It was a charm of seashells she had made for Sora a year back. She didn't know that Sora actually used the thing.

Roxas stared at the plethora of soldiers to defeat. He noticed large sums of troopers were marching in their direction, ready for battle. Still looking at the army, he said, "Looks like Reiden gave the order to attack." He turned back to Kairi. "Tell Naminé I said, 'Hey,' for me."

After that, he wielded both Keyblades and charged at the horde of skeletal soldiers.

_Wow. That took long. To write. And to read._

_Let's review:_

_1. Crash gets his dad's sword.  
2. Coco has a plan.  
3. Crash gets hurt in the process. Murray stays to help.  
4. Coco, Jak, Link, Keira, and Daxter lead Reiden to the creek.  
5. Reiden fakes his defeat.  
6. Aku and Kairi join Sora.  
7. Crash catches Coco from falling into the ground.  
8. Bentley and the others think the war is over  
9. Reiden-fighters join war-fighters.  
10. Reiden revitalizes his troopers..  
11. Twilight's Precursors arrive.  
12. Link has a wolf of a plan. (See what I did there?)  
13. Link and Sora are touched with a rift from the Twilight Realm.  
14. Wolf Link and Roxas appear.  
15. Rock Soldiers launch an attack, so Roxas launches his own._

_And that should be it! Ha, you all thought Reiden would be killed that easily. Yo, Aku Man! Give us some more character info, will ya?_

Aku Aku: It's about time. The first character is…

Roxas

**Age:**15  
**Gender:** Male  
**Species:** Human

Roxas is something called the Nobody of Sora. No, that's not an insult. He is the empty, heartless shell that formed when Sora lost his heart the year before. Since Sora's heart was so strong, his empty shell retained that strength as well, allowing Roxas to wield a Keyblade or two. Roxas' strength allowed him to join a clan of Nobodies called Organization XIII, where he was donned as the thirteenth member. After a while, he seceded from the Organization, and somewhere along the way, his memory was wiped and only had recollection of being a city boy. He has somehow joined bodies with his Other, and he currently has a love interest in Kairi's Nobody, Naminé. His two weapons of choice are Oblivion and Oathkeeper. Roxas first appeared in a secret movie in _Kingdom Hearts,_ _2002_, and was first playable in _Kingdom Hearts II,_ _2006_.

Wolf Link

**Age:** 17  
**Gender:** Male (Check for yourself)  
**Species:** Wolf

This is Link in Wolf form. When he first accidentally enters the Twilight Realm, he is transformed into a sacred beast most holy to the Twili people. His wolf body symbolizes that he was chosen by the Triforce of Courage, a big deal in the land of Hyrule. The Twili believed that a sacred wolf would someday rid their Zant troubles, as told by an ancient prophet. In this drastically different form, Link retains a few of his items and features, like his blue eyes and hoop earrings. And maybe the length of his hair stays the same, who knows? Those three triangles mentioned on his left paw are, of course, the Triforce symbol. And for some reason, a shackle with a broken chain stays on his left foreleg every time he transforms into a wolf. Wolf Link first starred as the hero's alter-ego form in _The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess,_ _2006._

_In the next chapter, Roxas and Wolf Link unleash their powers on Reiden and his minions! But will it be enough to stop them for good? What happens if Reiden is forced to go dragon? _

_All answered in the next chapter, Everybody Hates Reiden! _

_Yeah, I swear that's the last chapter of the Reiden arc. I'm getting worn out just typing it…_


	31. Everybody Hates Reiden

_Okay, peeps, sorry to keep you waiting. Here's the fall of Reiden, just for you. Also, you might wanna bust out the bifocals for this one, because this chapter is LONG. Twenty pages. Ten thousand nine hundred forty eight words. No kiddin'. Pop popcorn, put on some relaxing music, get multiple backrubs, anything to keep you comfortable. Because I care. I'll even split this chapter into four parts to help you (they'll be Italicized). Enjoy._

* * *

Chapter 31: Everybody Hates Reiden

_1. How to Explain a Conundrum…_

"I don't get it, didn't we just beat these guys?" asked Jem, parrying an attack from a Stone Guard. "And if I recall, we beat ALL of them!"

"Looks like they want a rematch!" suggested Han, a fellow villager. He was big enough to wield a giant sledge hammer like it was a baseball bat. "I'll take 'em all on again if they want me to!"

Madam Saoki commented in between panting, "Not enough Xiaolin training in the world could've prepared me for a battle like this." She leapt out of the way from a Paladin's club, landing a few feet in front of the mighty soldier.

Sage was growing more and more irritated from the skeletal soldiers' persistence by the second. He yelled, "Grrgh—DON'T YOU GOONS EVER GO ON A VACATION?"

Suddenly, he heard Jem shout from behind him, "Jyrai!"

Sage quickly spun around to see his comrade Jyrai impaled through the stomach by a horseman's sword. The stabbed man screamed in pain as the soldier removed the blade and continued riding around. Jem had raced over to the wounded villager's aide, cutting through five soldiers to get there. When he reached Jyrai, he could only beg a lifeless body to stay awake. Jem knelt next to his fallen friend, feeling no pulse.

Ryama, another village comrade, ran next to Jem and said, "It's too late for him, Jem. I'm sorry…"

Han marched over to the two and frantically said, "We'll give him a proper burial later! Right now, we have a war to finish!"

Jem stood up, joining Ryama and Han. He gave one last look to Jyrai before marching back into battle.

* * *

"Okay, so explain to me who that guy was," requested Sly.

Kairi explained, "He's Sora's Nobody."

"I understand completely," the raccoon answered back sarcastically.

Despite the fact that they were completely surrounded by Troopers of all shapes and sizes with the thirst for their blood and, possibly, guts, the redheaded girl uttered a laugh. She elaborated, "Well, in our world, when a heart gives in to the dark side, that person's heart turns him into something called a Heartless—yeah I know, a complete misnomer." She stopped to battle a few Stone Troopers.

Riku continued, "And the empty shell that the heart leaves behind is called a Nobody. Sora turned into a heartless—"

"—Ooh, bad boy," Coco interrupted, dropkicking a nearby trooper in the ribs.

"Yeah, right! He did it to free Kairi's heart. So when he turned into a heartless—"

"Hold on, how did freeing her heart cause him to turn into a Heartless?" asked Clank from Ratchet's back.

Riku slashed at a Paladin's leg and answered, "Well, he used a special Keyblade that has the power to unlock hear—"

"Whoa, whoa, what the heck's a Keyblade?" asked Ratchet, who had just gotten done busting up a Cavalry Trooper with his white boxing-glove weapon called the Walloper. "Oh wait…never mind, that's pretty self explanatory."

"Wait, where do you guys get those wicked weapons, anyway?" asked Keira, pausing from blasting foes with Light Eco.

Because it was her, Riku gladly answered, "Well, the Keyblades choose their wielders, and it chose me. After Sora defeated me—"

"You two had a fight?" pondered Crash while wielding his father's sword defensively.

"Trouble in paradise?" teased a grinning Daxter from Jak's shoulder.

Riku sighed, irritated. "Anyway, after our battle, he cut himself with the Keyblade—"

"Whoa—emotional problems," commented Coco, who was perched on a Paladin, holding the beast in a headlock.

"Actually, he more like 'impaled his heart'," corrected Goofy, gesturing matter-of-factly with his shield-arm. When he did so, he unwittingly tripped the legs of a skeletal steed, defeating the enemy.

"Same diff, now ANYWAYS, when he did that, Kairi's heart was freed, but he became a Heartless—"

"Whoa, sucka from another mucka, why did that happen?" asked Crunch, scratching his head with his now transformed blaster-arm.

Riku sighed again and took his anger out on four nearby soldiers. Every time he took one of them out, he raised his voice. "Because that KEYBLADE unlocked HEARTS! And when a heart is UNLOCKED, DARKNESS floods in!"

"Okay, got it," replied a satisfied Crunch.

The silver haired boy took in a deep breath. "…Okay, lost my train-of-thought…oh yeah, after he became a heartless, Roxas was formed. The end."

Crash said bluntly, "I'm lost."

_2. New Warriors, Old Habits_

They continued fighting back the onslaught of troops, leaving no room for error. Meanwhile, Roxas and Wolf Link (plus Gladdus) ran through thick clumps of heavy troopers, severing them along the way.

With his hood up, Roxas made quick work of a Paladin; he ran at it full speed and flipped over its head. When he landed, he severed both its legs from behind and quickly moved out of the way, for the hulking soldier would fall.

Link sprinted at a group of Cavalry Troopers with Gladdus clinging onto his back like a saddle. Six soldiers on horseback attempted to take the wolf head-on in two rows of three; they, obviously, had never met a sacred wolf before. Link sprinted and pounced at the middle column, using his teeth to pierce straight through the first skeletal steed's long neck and directly reach the rider's ribs. After the horseman landed with a clatter, he set his sights on the second rider behind the one he just mutilated, viciousness in his eyes.

The trooper attempted to halt the horse and turn back around, but that only managed to make it slide and land on its side right in front of the sacred beast. Wolf Link then took the opportunity to bite the horse's neck bones in half, actually, to pieces. By now, the Stone Trooper riding the now deceased horse had gotten up and started running away in a panicked craze. He didn't get too far before Link butted his head into the soldier's legs, much like a ram would, and caused him to fall flat on his back. Then, Link turned around and chomped his neck-vertebral region in one swift movement.

Catching her breath, Gladdus commented, "Wow, that was just plain mean."

But that was only two of the Cavalry threat out of six. Two of the remaining horsemen sought easier prey in Roxas, who only walked, dismantling skeletal guards that dared to get within five feet of the warrior.

Roxas casually strolled, step for step, towards the ensuing riders, all while swinging his arms wildly to counter the fruitless attacks of the rock-fodder. Twelve troopers rained on him on all sides; two ran up on his left side, side-by-side, and they both struck downwards at the same time. The Nobody met these blows with a horizontal Oathkeeper and countered with a quick diagonal slash, severing both of them in the waist. Three in front of him ran with swords-a-wild, and another one on his right side. He made quick work of them by first blocking the three attacks in front with Oblivion and bringing Oathkeeper to protect his right. (Please note: Roxas keeps his Oathkeeper on his left and Oblivion on his right, so he's in a pretty twisted position right now.) Next, he proceeded to simply bring each Keyblade back to their original, respective sides, completely sabotaging the midsections of each soldier in the process. The next wave involved one soldier approaching from behind, two in front, one on his left, and two on his right.

First, Roxas jammed the tip of Oblivion into the pelvis of the lone soldier behind him (ouch), and swung his Oathkeeper to the left, wounding one of the two in front of him in the process across the stone ribs and beheading the lone trooper on his left. Finally, he pulled the dark Keyblade out of the trooper's pelvis from behind him, dropping the soldier, and reeled it around to the left again, this time severing one of the troopers on his right in half and completely splitting the soldier he previously wounded. To destroy the last two, who were in front and on his right, Roxas pivoted his whole body one hundred eighty degrees to the right until Oathkeeper met the obviously frightened one on his right side. After that Keyblade-rock conference, he spun back in the opposite direction so Oblivion could have a one-a-one with the last soldier in front.

Now that all twelve had been easily taken out, which is pretty sad, Roxas finally had the chance to focus on the two quickly approaching Cavalry Troopers (forgot about them, didn't you?). Sora's Nobody continued his near-casual walk, leaving behind a mess of stone bones littered like debris behind him. After seeing that it was one hundred percent possible for Roxas to scrap their bone-butts, they halted their skeletal horses and quickly turned back around, fortress-bound.

Roxas, of course, wasn't going to let them go with bones still intact and connected; he swiftly rotated each time he threw his Keyblades after the fleeing horsemen. In the end, when both Keyblades returned to their hand-owners from the Strike-Raid, all four skulls were separated from each skeletal body, horses included. (1)

Meanwhile, the last two so-called threats had actually devised a strategy; their brilliant plan was to ride on either SIDE of Wolf Link and Gladdus and flank them. Possibly Through telepathy, Link communicated his plan to the precursor riding on his back. She responded, "Oh, Midna's move! I got that, easy."

Suddenly, a dark ring of black smoke appeared around them. They focused intently on the stupidly approaching Cavalry Troopers, waiting for just the right time to strike.

"Wait for it…" instructed Gladdus.

The riders picked up there speed, apparently sensing no danger. They both raised their swords, ready to attack.

"Almost there…" she whispered, squinting with Link.

The horsemen screamed a battle cry as they drew nearer, "For Lord Reiden!"

"A few more steps, Link," Gladdus said, now ducking down.

Their pursuers were now only feet away. The soldiers drew back their swords…

"NOW!" yelled Gladdus into Link's ear. The wolf instinctively roared up into the sky and everything within the dark ring of shadows suddenly exploded with black fire, instantly destroying both and the last set of Cavalry Troopers. The last Cavalry Troopers near the fortress, anyway.

"Whew," said Gladdus, "That was a doozy."

Suddenly, her father appeared next to the duo. He tried putting on a smile and asked, "So, Gladdy, how's it goin' with the whole Sacred-Beast situation?"

She sighed and slouched on Link's fury back, "Just fine, dad."

"You're not slowing him down, are you?"

"No dad—we're kinda in the middle of a war, here!"

"What, you can't take five minutes out of your busy schedule to talk to your father?"

"Why don't you stay the—!" She caught herself and calmed down, taking in deep breaths. Instead of going off, she simply removed the general's marine hat and disrespectfully threw in a random direction. "Go nuts."

Immediately, the general looked all around him in a paranoid state. He panicked, "Oh no—the enemy is all around us! I'll defend you, Private Bobby!" He ran off towards the villagers, punching random soldiers that weren't even in his way. "SEMPER FI, MAGGOTS!"

Meanwhile, Roxas had finally caught up to Link. The wolf communicated something to Gladdus and she translated, pointing up to Reiden's position atop the fortress. "We need to come up with a plan to beat him." The emperor wasn't at the very top of it, where his lair resided; the emperor stood on the elevated roof of the main central building, which was the base of the long tower that lead to his lair. So in other words, he was standing on a lower rooftop of his fortress.

"Alright, I've got a plan!" declared Roxas from under his hood. "I'll go up and find a way to knock him back down here, and then we'll finish him off together."

"Link says it's a plan."

Link and Gladdus sprinted off towards the villagers' battle, which wasn't too far from one of the disabled towers. Roxas plowed through some more Stone Troopers, noticing they were becoming more desperate to kill him. He swung around his Keyblades and pivoted his body, destroying the soldiers that dared to leap at him. In fact, many of the soldiers were now jumping from one side of his vision to the other, daring to slice him. He merely kept his cool, countering and deflecting every offence attempted. Another crazed soldier lit himself on fire…no, wait, it was the same soldier as before. After igniting himself, he ran the same crazy run as before. However, Roxas simply jumped, mid-combo, and kicked the trooper's midsection, sending him away and ending the minor threat. Roxas continued plowing towards the main central castle's wall, until one soldier jumped at him high over his head. The Nobody jumped and spin-slashed the soldier to pieces in midair, raining debris. After landing, he turned around just in time to see three more Stone Troopers leaping at him at a very high elevation; he switched his stance to defense and quickly back-flipped over another guard trying to tackle him (sounding familiar, yet?).

After landing from the back-flip, Roxas jumped yet again, but over the three soldiers who threatened to carve him up from above. As soon as they hit the empty spot he had just leapt from, they got trampled by other soldiers trying to follow the boy into the air. In midair, Roxas spin-slashed three of the seven troopers who followed him and threw his Oathkeeper at the highest one; the return trip took out the last three coming down. Shortly after landing, he back-flipped over eight troopers to get in close with fort's wall. He looked up the gray bricks to see Reiden standing near the rooftop's edge, watching his every move (now, I know this sounds familiar to you).

From up above, Reiden chuckled to himself and said, "Either Sora went emo' on us, or that's good ol' Roxas. Peng Yen Se! Come out, Stealth Troopers!"

Just like from inside the staircase tower, soldiers of granite started peeling themselves off the outside walls of the main central structure, ready for a Nobody-Attack.

Roxas got at a good running start and jumped in between two windowsills, and then got enough speed to run up the side of the wall. Along the way, he fiercely destroyed the lurking Stealth Troopers (there is something deeply wrong with you if you still haven't figured this out) that got in his narrow path.

He continued to defy gravity, sometimes making leaps and bounds to keep from slipping off. With the sun at high noon, Roxas got close enough to see a smile on Reiden's lips. The blonde haired boy released the hood from his head at the same time he reached the building's rooftop edge. He pushed down on his right foot to leap and flip over the emperor, who stood calmly. For a brief moment time paused while Roxas levitated directly overhead Reiden; both stared at each other, smirking-face-to-glaring-face.

Roxas landed ten feet behind Reiden and immediately turned around to point his Oblivion Keyblade at the emperor like an accusing finger. The wall that led up to Reiden's throne was about another ten feet behind the boy. An east wind blew on his wild, pointy blonde hair and black clothes. Facing the other way, Reiden still stood calmly, the wind also blowing on his black cotton gi pants.

Reiden slowly turned around, murderous joy on his face. He said, "I gotta be honest. I wasn't really expecting YOU to show up." He gave a small grin. "I hope you fight better than your Other."

Still keeping his death glare and Keyblade pointing at Reiden, Roxas replied, "So, I'm guessing you met everyone else from Organization XIII down in Oblivion."

"Yeah, my friends and I heard so much about you. We heard about how your worthless soul was created. How you turned away from the Organization. And about how you somehow managed to reunite with Sora. While it all sounded like a bunch of confusing B.S., I was wondering when I'd be able to meet these two great warriors of the Keyblade. But now, I get to crush the both of you within a twenty-four hour span. Ain't that downright lovely?"

"I'm tired of hearing you talk." The Nobody took a fighting stance with both Keyblades crossed in front of him.

"Hmph." From the lively battleground below them, two swords flew up from two fallen soldiers Roxas had thrashed and landed in each of Reiden's free hands. He whirled them around before saying, "Then come at me."

And Roxas did just that; he broke off at a full run towards the emperor, which was only a short distance. He hacked his Oblivion diagonally leftward, only missing Reiden by inches as he ducked down. He followed up with a rightward slash from Oathkeeper, missing Reiden again.

Reiden snapped back up to a standing position and attempted to slash Roxas across the abdomen; because the Nobody had previously hacked in both directions, his arms were now crossed over his lower body. To avoid the incoming sword-slash from the warlord, Roxas flipped backwards, completely avoiding the attack.

Reiden continued his furious drive; he slashed in every direction possible as Roxas back-tracked, easily parrying the strikes. To break the onslaught, Roxas slid his foot under the emperor to trip him up, only to feel air as Reiden hopped over. In midair, Reiden threw a kick at Roxas, who blocked it with his forearm. Then, Reiden brought out his other booted foot and managed to kick the Keyblader directly in the face.

Roxas was thrown aback by that heavy kick. Lying on the ground, he felt a burning sensation in his nose. However, he only had half a second to contemplate what it was, for both of Reiden's swords were heading down for his chest. He rolled to his right and felt the limestone roof shake as the blades dug into it. As he shot up, he noticed Reiden cursing to himself, struggling to pull his blades free.

"Boss-battle mistake number one!" exclaimed Roxas with a grin. He charged at the stuck warlord, who tried with all his might to free the weapons.

Once Reiden realized that he wasn't going to get his swords in time before Roxas got to him, he let go of the swords' hilts and grabbed onto Roxas' wrists before they hit him with the Keyblades. Roxas' speed had caused the two fighters to tumble and, eventually, roll off the roof's edge. They fell in front of the fort's front entrance.

In the rushing air, Reiden punched Roxas across the face twice. He then proceeded to plant his fist in the boy's stomach, making him withdraw his Oblivion and Oathkeeper and lurch forward in pain. As a final hit, Reiden forced both his feet into Roxas' abdomen, to speed up the Nobody's falling process while he used his powers to levitate in midair.

Reiden floated high above the ground and watched the falling Roxas as he rapidly approached the hard, soldier-littered ground. He crossed his arms and smirked at the thought of The Chosen One splattering like a watermelon…

From seemingly nowhere, Glennatus flew on the scene and caught Roxas by his left arm. He said, "I gotcha, pal!"

Reiden frowned at this and nearly exploded with rage (and curses). He yelled, "NO! THAT'S IT!"

Suddenly, all the not-so modern warfare stopped. Skeletal troops stopped their advances, and the heroes were more than pleased to rest their defenses. Every cranium, skin and no skin, tilted towards the enraged overlord floating in front of the fortress. They watched fearfully as he hollered over everyone, "YOU IDIOTS, HEAR ME NOW! I'M SO THROUGH PLAYIN' WIT' CHALL!" Then, to everyone's surprise, he sprouted two large, red wings from his back. The undersides of the wings were of a golden color.

Roxas gasped as he hung from Glen's arm.

Then, his face snapped into something demonic; his nostrils widened, the bridge of his nose suddenly pushed outward along with his jaw, and his once violent brown eyes started to glow a violent gold. Reiden continued to scream and shout, "THE GAMES ARE OVUH!"

From across the battlefield, Keira and Kairi gasped in unison.

Suddenly, a long, red tail grew from his back. It was the type with a spiked ending, and it also had a yellowish underside. "I'LL KILL YOOOOOUUUUU!"

And that was when his body had taken the enormous shape of a dragon. His bare upper body grew yellow scales and widened like crazy. His arms turned red and scaly and grew in length. His legs (and strangely, his gi pants, too) turned red and scaly as well, growing very wide. His head and neck grew scales all around, making him look like a true monster. After the transformation completed, Reiden Long had grown sixteen times his original size. The Chinese dragon had distinct muscular arms yet reversed-jointed legs like a dog or lion would have. Reiden opened eyes, which were now glowing yellow even on the sclera. (2)

_3. A Dragon's Rampage _

With a booming yet calm voice, he said, "You Stone Idiots are relieved of your duties…"

Simultaneously, every Paladin to horse to grunt trooper fell in piles of rocky debris. The villagers thought they would be relieved to see the stone army crumble, but could only stare in horror at the gigantic monster that loomed over them.

Crash, Coco, Aku Aku, Ratchet, and Clank had all migrated to the villagers' location during the battle once they had noticed the men's numbers were decreasing. Unfortunately, six were already dead, and eleven were injured, including Jem. Crash would never be able to forgive himself if he let another man die, so he issued the orders:

"Aku Aku, I need you teleport everybody here back to the camp, please!"

The witchdoctor mask shook his wooden body sideways. "Sorry, boy. There are too many people here for me to teleport all at once. It would take me too long to get everyone back safely before Reiden starts attacking!"

"Crud…" Crash looked around for another light of hope. Finally, he found the General-Precursor and called, "General Eureka, or whatever your name is, I need you to teleport—!"

"Egad, Colonel Combs! They've brought out the heavy artillery! Just look at that thing!" the general continued to freak out.

"Wait, Sir, you're not listen—"

"I'm comin' home, Elizabeth!"

Coco intervened, "Crash, it's no use!"

Because he had experience, Clank added, "We must find his hat to make him sane again!"

Suddenly, Gladdus and Okami—sorry, that's Wolf Link—came to a sliding halt next to them. The precursor-girl waved and said, "Thought you might need our assistance with the Dragon Freak."

Crash answered, "Actually, I need you to teleport all these village men to a safe spot, like the encampment. But I don't know how long that place will be safe, so we need to hurry!" He leaned in and whispered lowly, "I also need you to teleport some other people…" The bandicoot pointed behind him.

"Oh, okay. I see…" she replied.

Coco looked puzzled. "What? What's going on?"

Ratchet also inquired, "Yeah, what did you just whisper?"

"Guys," began Crash, smiling a little sheepishly, "I—uh—just need you to go with the village dudes for a second…"

The Lombax protested, "C'mon, Crash, we're not just gonna ditch you."

Coco added, "Yeah, Crash, you know you're gonna get crushed by that thing. Let us help!"

Aku understood Crash's aim. He said, "Ratchet, Coco, Clank, you must do as he says. I'm pretty sure he wants the three of you safe, otherwise he has a plan."

The Lombax and bandicootess looked at Crash, seeing a hint of well-meaning in his face. Much to their reluctance, Ratchet agreed, "Fine, we'll go. Just try not to get…well, eaten."

"Thanks guys!" said Crash.

Aku Aku turned to him and asked, "I guess you want me to go, too?"

Crash rubbed the back of his head and answered, "Ahehe, kind of…"

Meanwhile, Gladdus levitated off Link and descended in the middle of standing villagers. She called out, "Stand next to me if you want to live to see fifty! Well, in that old lady's case, eighty-five."

Before any could even have a chance to protest, Crash said to them, "Do it, guys! This is for your safety!"

Sage chimed in, "He's right. Six too many of us are already dead. Next thing we know, we'll all be face-down in the dirt if we try to fight that thing."

Ryama agreed, "Yeah, that's suicide. Let's get outta here!"

After hearing sounds of agreement from the rest of the men, Gladdus said, "Alright, everyone, gather round. Just don't touch or breathe on me…"

Up in the air, Reiden stretched his long arms and cracked his neck. Oh, how much loved doing that form. He looked at his hands, observing the same claws that had carved his enemies up centuries ago. The best part about those hands was the fact that he retained his thumbs.

He put down those weapons and immediately prepped for his first attack. He flapped his wings and angled his body to nosedive at the villagers below him. As he flew, he set his sights on a lone villager limping to the rest.

Back on the ground, Sage looked around for someone: Jem. In slow motion, the egotist looked from the nose-diving dragon to the wounded Jem, who had fallen down, still many meters away. There was no doubt; Jem was going to die unless he did something.

Gladdus announced, "Okay, everyone, stay together in three, two…"

Sage led an argument in his mind, _Yep, Jem's dead. But I could still save him if I tell Gladdus to wait. No, then everybody else will be in danger from Reiden…Or I could just go save him by myself. But I have a daughter to take care of. Then again, he has two daughters…and no spouse…whereas I have a wife. A wife who could take care of Paige long after I die…Aw, man, I'm already running towards Jem!_

It was true; Sage was sprinting full speed towards his long time friend. A dark shadow started to engulf the two, but at the last second, Sage's hands had pushed his wounded comrade clear out of the way. Behind him, Gladdus announced the final number and teleported everyone, including Coco, Ratchet, Clank, and the insane General Eurathaccus back to camp. While Sage's body sunk into the chomping maw of Lord Reiden, he said with a grin, "You owe me, Jem."

Crash looked on at the incident with wide eyes, thinking that he should've down something. He felt heavy breaths exit through his lungs, but they were accompanied with some other kind of entity…something unruly. Suddenly, his whole body tensed up. Crash was feeling it take control.

Meanwhile, Dragon Reiden chewed a little before he swallowed, remembering the bad indigestion he would get later if he didn't. He looked to his left to see Jem sitting in a frozen position and raised his scaly arm to squash him with his hand. However, his red palm stopped short due to a certain sacred wolf barricading it from Jem.

Wolf Link stood strongly over the wounded villager, holding the massive hand at bay with his surprisingly thick skull. He used all four of his powerful legs to keep his rigid posture against Reiden's palm.

"What the—?" Reiden stared down between his fingers in disbelief, not knowing why he hadn't crushed the little canine by now. He pushed down harder, feeling Link's strength crumbling underneath the pressure. "Heh, heh, heh, yeah, that's it, little doggie!"

Link knew his strength well, well enough to know that he wasn't going to last ten more seconds against a dragon's strength. He inched his head to the side to look at Jem and barked something fierce. It probably meant something along the lines of, "What are you DOING? Move before both of us are KILLED!"

Jem obviously understood because he started crawling on his hands and knees in the opposite direction.

Meanwhile, off in the distance, the other heroes couldn't decide whether to go and help Crash and Link or to run far away, the latter of which sounding sane to them. Seeing as how they no longer had enemies to fight, Jak pulled out his communicator and dialed I for Crash. "Crash, pick up…"

Across the field, the bandicoot frozen in a heavy trance felt the vibration in his jacket pocket. Coming back to reality, he pulled it out robotically and answered, "Hello?"

Back with the others, Jak replied, "We saw what happened. We'll be there ASAP."

"_No!" _Crash retorted over the comm. _"You all stay where it's safe. I'll beat him by myself!"_

Jak gave Keira a slightly nervous, slightly confused look. "Crash, are you sure?"

"_Just stay over there…"_

Sly looked puzzled as well. "We're not just going to leave him over there, are we?"

"I…don't know…" faltered Jak. He looked down, his mind teeter-tottering between the two decisions.

Goofy suggested, "Maybe he's gotta plan that doesn't involve us? I doubt he wants any more of us to get hurt."

"Better be one heck of a plan," said a voice from above. They all looked up to see Roxas holding onto the arm of a levitating Glen. Roxas continued as they touched down to Earth, "Cuz I highly doubt that I could even beat him like that alone."

Daxter asked, breaking the subject, "So, Rack Sis, what's it like not havin' a heart?"

Roxas raised a brow and asked, "What's that have to do with anything?"

"Are you like a Zombie-slash-Vampire-slash-Frankenstein, or something?" asked Daxter.

"No—I'm none of that!"

"Then how the HECK are you living without a—?"

"Just don't even think about the possibilities," interrupted Riku, not wanting to have to answer a flood of questions again.

Glen stated, "Well, everyone, I'm gonna go check to see how things are going over at the encampment. I'll be back really fast-like!" The Precursor teleported, leaving every hero blinded by the light.

* * *

Crash drew his shiny new sword and charged at the dragon; he leapt up and stabbed the back of Reiden's hand, causing the monster to reel back his whole arm in pain. While Link regrouped, shaking his head frantically, Crash had stayed attached to Reiden's hand. The bandicoot removed his sword from the fiend's rough flesh and ran up its long, bent arm. He leapt up again with great strength from Reiden's shoulder and made to plant his sword in the dragon's cheekbone.

Reiden looked over at the last second to see the flying bandicoot attempting to stab his face. "Gotcha…" he snarled. Immediately, he snapped his teeth at him, managing to do nothing more than bite onto the sword. Crash held on tightly to the hilt, dangling his legs in front of Reiden's chin.

Reiden rattled his head rapidly, tossing the bandicoot's body from side-to-side. When Crash didn't release his grip on the sword, Reiden decided to release _his_; the bandicoot plus sword flew straight to the ground, tumbling a few times first.

Immediately after landing, he snapped back up to a kneeling position, holding the sword in his right hand. However, he soon realized that that wouldn't make a difference because the large red lizard was charging at him, fangs out and wings rising. Without delay, Crash horizontally blocked the incoming clash of teeth that carried him high into the air.

Wolf Link got a good running start and jumped onto Reiden's tail, making sure to leap over the spikes. As the canine ran up the scaly appendage, he noticed the landscape under them quickly get left behind. All three combatants were now flying through the air of the mountain valley.

* * *

Keira suggested, "Maybe we should start heading back to camp…"

"Yeah, we should meet up with Ratchet and the others back at the encampment," agreed Jak. "Let's move, people."

Out the corner of her eye, Kairi noticed a struggling man not too far off in the distance. It looked like he had given up crawling to safety and just lay there. She exclaimed, "Wait guys—I think that's Jem!

"No kidding, she's right! We gotta go rescue him!" said a fired-up Crunch.

"And…uh-oh."

"What?" the red bandicoot asked. When the redhead pointed to the source of attention, he suddenly got the picture. "Oh…"

Now, everyone had understood what caused the "oh". Off in the distance, actually approaching, was the vile, vicious, and airborne Dragon Reiden. Standing on the ground, Daxter held a twitchy smile and said gently, "Oh. Look at that." He turned around and mumbled something inaudible to Jak, still keeping the same twitchy smile.

Not hearing the ottsel, Jak asked, "What?"

"Oh, you didn't hear me? Allow me to repeat myself…RUN FOR YOUR FRIGGIN' LIFE!"

Daxter jumped straight to his pal's shoulder and wrapped his entire body around Jak's head. The hero struggled to scrape the rat off his face as he said, muffled, "Daxter, I can't see!"

Getting Daxter off his face, Jak lead Keira, Murray, Bentley, Donald, Goofy, Roxas, Kairi, Sly, and Riku in running in the opposite direction towards the encampment, which was about half a mile away. It didn't seem like a good idea to lead a fire-breathing dragon to the innocent lives of Buru, but that was the only way to run. However, Donald stopped after two steps and yelled, "WAK! We're forgetting about Jem!"

With that fact, everyone else stopped to look back at the face-down man lying on the ground. Crunch immediately volunteered, "I'll get 'em!"

"Hurry back safely, Crunch," said Bentley before whirling around and fleeing with the other heroes.

Crunch nodded and sprinted in Jem's direction, towards the flying inferno. As he ran, he thought to himself, _It's Crunch Time…hmm, I should remember to use that one out loud in front of people next time…yeah, tha's gonna be goooood…_He looked up to see the dragon still off in the distance, flapping its wings and jerking wildly, as if something was irritating it. Then, he looked down to see the man struggling to get to his hands and knees and suddenly drop again.

When Crunch arrived to Jem's aide, he carefully grabbed the ailing man around the waist and slung him over his shoulder. The muscular bandicoot said in an assuring tone, "Don't worry, sir, Crunch is gonna make sure you're just fine."

Over the bandicoot's shoulder, Jem moaned in pain, clutching his left side, "Oooaaaaahh…"

Crunch revoked his last statement with a sheepishly worried look, "On second thought, you might just be O.K…"

Crunch began a quickly paced jog, griping Jem's injured body to keep him from slipping off. Just for the heck of it, he looked back to see if Reiden had gotten any closer, although he doubted he did. After looking back, Crunch figured out that his hypothesis was extremely incorrect…

* * *

Link held onto Reiden's jungle-like hair with his teeth, barely able to keep his four legs planted firmly on the scaly forehead. Crash had managed to grasp onto the long bridge of the dragon-emperor's nose; his sword was sheathed in the case strapped around his torso. Crash looked up to see the wolf struggling to hold still and curiously asked, "What the heck's your problem?"

Link barked and growled something back down to the bandicoot, who apparently understood. He replied, "Well I don't have my air legs either! Use your thumbs!"

Wolf Link glared down at Crash flatly.

Reiden shouted, "GET OFF MY FACE!" The annoyed dragon swiped at his face to brush the critters off, but he only managed to move air. Peering downward, he said, "Oh, look. I spy with my little eye a bunch of idiots running…"

Crash and Link peered down at the battlefield in front of them. Indeed, there were some people trying to run, but when Reiden drifted closer to the ground, the two could recognize those specks as their friends. Crash screamed, "Reiden, NOOO!"

"Don't worry, I won't miss," joked the vile emperor.

Crunch ran full speed, but Reiden's wide nostrils were nearly on his footsteps. On Reiden's forehead, Crash heard the gigantic monster slowly inhale through his nose. Knowing what was to come, Crash yelled to the fleeing bandicoot, "Crunch! Drop to the ground!"

At first, Crunch looked confused, not knowing where Crash's voice was coming from. He decided not to figure that out and keep running.

Crash tried again. "CRUNCH! Behind you!"

"Nah-uh, Reiden! You ain't trickin' me!" Crunch yelled back.

Noticing Reiden was seconds away from exhaling, Crash took it upon himself to rip off his red shoe and chuck it at Crunch's head. The bandicoot and man slung over his shoulder fell flat on the hard ground, and Reiden inadvertently flew directly over them. When he did exhale, simply because he was running out of breath, flames exploded through his nostrils, bathing the ground with fire.

Reiden roared, "Thanks a lot, I was so gonna fry those guys!"

The flying armored fortress of a foe continued his flight; in order from closest to farthest away, the running heroes started with Donald, Goofy, Bentley, Sly, Roxas, Kairi, Riku, Murray, Keira, and Jak and Daxter. Reiden set his crosshairs on the duck and dog and got ready to huff out another infernal blast. Wolf Link foresaw this, so he proceeded to slide down the monster's bumpy forehead and bite onto its left brow, which was the equivalent of trying to bite into thick tree bark. But still, Link's teeth sank deep enough to tear the tissue.

As Link hung there on Reiden's brow, Reiden suddenly felt the sharp pain all at once; his eyes widened, and he roared in howling pain, dispelling the fire blast he was about to launch. He grabbed at his eyebrow with his left hand and screamed, "AHH! Go mess with someone else's face!" It was then that he noticed he had flown directly over Donald and Goofy, who were already four-too-many heroes still alive.

Reiden snatched the wolf between his thumb and index finger and ripped it off his scaly brow, making a slight tear-wound. In his left hand, Reiden squeezed the little canine with all his might, aiming to crush every bone in its body.

Link's head poked out the side of Reiden's hand as he felt the dragon's grasp exponentially tighten around the rest of his body. His bones began compressing, and soon, he felt the pressure rush to his head, causing him to fall unconscious.

Crash drew his sword and stabbed down at the bridge of the dragon's nose, but it was too late for Link, however. Reiden brushed off the searing pain and released his grip on the wolf and let him fall to the rushing ground beneath them.

Reiden laughed and said, "Aw, I could've used him to guard my daises at night. But like a rodent, he lays dead in the dirt." Reiden continued to laugh loudly and fly towards his next targets: Bentley, Sly, Roxas, and Kairi.

He sped up to them, flapping his wings wider to propel himself forward. Crash pulled his sword free from Reiden's armored nasal bone, and he soon realized he pulled a little too hard; his whole body flew backward and started sliding down the dragon's nose. He caught a grip on the tip of Reiden's nose, dangling in front of his smoky nostrils.

"Whoa…" said Crash nervously, "…please don't scratch!"

While rolling his chair like mad, Bentley thought of a plan. The turtle yelled to the other three, "Guys, I can use the rockets on my wheelchair to propel myself upwards and over Reiden! The only problem is my chair can only carry two people, and one spot is already taken!"

Sly turned to the redhead running next to him and said, "Ladies first, Kairi."

Roxas called to him, "Wait, you should go, Sly! I'll handle Kairi and myself. We should be fine."

Sly replied, "If you say so! See you on the safe side!"

Sly Cooper quickly hopped onto the back of Bentley's chair and yelled, "Let's get this over with!" Bentley pressed a button hidden underneath one of the armrests and rockets flipped out the sides of his wheels. They ignited, sending the turtle and raccoon sky-high.

Reiden stared in disbelief as the duo soared above and behind his head, only saying two words: "That's cool." He then stared back down at the bandicoot struggling to keep hold on his nose and smiled. Reiden said slyly, "Lemme heat things up for ya…"

Crash heard something he had feared since he slipped and fell. He heard the sound of Reiden lungs inhaling. The bandicoot stared directly into the shafts that would burn his whole body, which, if you were paying attention, were Reiden's nostrils.

Due to the fact that both of his hands (the right of which was holding onto his sword) were above him holding onto Reiden's nose, Crash was unable to stab the dragon again to stop the incoming breath of fire. So, Crash had no choice but to drop down. He brushed against the scaly surface and caught himself on Reiden's lower lip while the fire rushed over his head. He just hoped his friends had found a way to avoid the attack.

Roxas grabbed Kairi's hand and leapt forward, clear out blast's range. They landed a few feet behind Riku and Murray, where they could see the encampment's tents behind a few trees off in the distance. They were three quarters of the way there.

Seeing that he had missed, Reiden tried another tactic. The massive dragon flew low to the ground, making it impossible for anyone to dive underneath without getting crushed or eaten. He inhaled shorter breaths and puffed out smaller blasts of fire through his nose. Each blast shot through the air like fast, flaming pellets.

One blast exploded right next Riku, startling the boy greatly. Another exploded a few meters in front of him, giving him no choice but to leap over the flames. Part of his pant legs caught on fire, much to his dismay. He said to himself, "No, no, no, not my lucky ones!"

However, Murray wasn't so lucky. One blast landed right behind his heal and sent him flying forward. He screamed, "AAAHH! WHOOAA! SOMEBODY LAY OUT A TRAMPOLINE!"

Riku sighed and said, "I'm on it." He cast the magic spell Aero with Way to the Dawn, which propelled the hippo higher into the air with a magic wind.

In perfect ball-form, Murray safely flew right over Reiden's head. The dragon-emperor growled, "Now this is just getting annoying! I'll make sure the next ones are fried, well done!"

Roxas joked to Kairi, "You hear that? He wants us 'well done'. Not medium rare. Well done!"

She replied, "I'd like my insides to stay red and uncrsipy!"

Jak and Daxter were already near the creek. With a good run, the duo bounded over the small river and landed on both feet, followed by Keira and Riku. Roxas and Kairi were still behind, however.

Sora's Nobody heard another windy inhale resound from Reiden's snout; he looked behind to see the dragon's mug only about six meters away, which isn't a pretty sight. He saw Crash's legs dragging on the ground as the rest of him struggled to stay on Reiden's chin. Roxas also saw flames that were seconds away from exploding out Reiden's nostrils.

The Nobody turned to Kairi and asked, "What does a submarine do?"

"I don't know—"

"DIVE!" Roxas yelled as he brought his arms around her and threw both their bodies forward. Behind them, the flames rushed like an un-dammed river ready to swallow up everything in its path. Roxas angled their trajectory downward to the creek below; he tilted himself so he would be the first to hit the water.

Roxas and Kairi suddenly felt their shoes heat up, but only for a second. Kairi opened her eyes to see them sinking down into the creek, the raging fire now above them.

Jak, Daxter, Keira, and Riku had all found hiding places from the fire that ripped across the creek. As soon as the fire dissipated, Reiden flew upwards and just floated in the air, a look of disbelief torn across his face. He stammered with wide eyes, "This…is…impossible…"

Daxter jumped down from Jak's shoulder and commented on what he just saw. "Oh, MAN! Did you see that?"

Keira asked, "What, the blast that nearly INCINERATED us?"

Daxter responded, "Nope. I'm talking about Rack Sis. Man, he's so ki-uhl! I mean, he carries around those two badass swords and wields 'em like a beast! Then he's running around everywhere, climbin' up walls and carving baddies to bits! And if that ain't enough, he gets the girls in the coolest ways possible! I saw you given 'em that look of envy, boys."

As Jak and Riku gave the ottsel raised eyebrows, Roxas emerged with Kairi from the waist deep water, dripping. Roxas looked down at his soaked jacket with a disgruntled look. He said flatly, "There goes my deposit…"

Daxter yelped, "AND he's got jokes!"

The Nobody looked over to the also disgruntled princess next to him and asked jokingly, "Um…how was the landing?"

She shot a look at him but immediately smiled. Apparently, his eyes reminded her of Sora. She answered, "Shut up…" She also looked down to see Roxas' arm still around her waist. "Maybe we should get on land…?"

"Oh, right, yeah."

When they joined Riku, Jak, Keira, and Daxter on land, they were all met by Coco, Ratchet, Clank, and Aku Aku, who came from the encampment. After a few greetings, The Lombax stated, "Things are going somewhat stable with the villagers. Where's everyone else?"

Jak answered, "Don't worry, they all managed to survive Reiden's attacks. What we need to worry about now is Reiden himself."

"I wonder what he's up to right now," pondered Riku.

"Let's get out from under these trees, everyone," said Aku Aku, floating back towards the camp.

Back with the rest of the villagers, the heroes could sense sorrow within each man, woman, and child. Some had lost fathers and brothers, while others had lost spouses. Although there was sorrow, it was also accompanied by feelings of gratitude and relief, most likely from the families of the many who survived or those who were only wounded in battle. Glennatus, Gladdus, and the General were helping some of the women nurse the injured villagers. When Jak, Daxter, Keira, Riku, Roxas, and Kairi arrived, he asked them, "Will you guys watch Reiden for us while I go find the rest of your crew? I'm gonna go make sure they're still alive…"

"As if _watching_ him will do any good…" said Coco Bandicoot.

In the barren battlefield, the Precursor of Twilight appeared exactly where he had left Jak and the others before. He retraced the heroes' steps, hovering high above the ground. Off in the distance, he could see Donald, Goofy, Crunch, and the now conscious Jem kneeling over something. Puzzled, he flew after them.

Upon arrival, Glen's mouth hit the ground. Gaping at the sight of an almost lifeless canine body, he asked, "Wha—what happened to 'em?"

"Crushed," answered Jem bluntly. "By Reiden's massive hand."

"Not the Sacred One…alright, we gotta get him help—and FAST!"

Donald Duck diagnosed, "His insides are smashed. My Cure spell won't be enough to save him; I'm gonna need more people doing the magic with me for it to work. But if we don't get him back for help in time, he may die."

* * *

Reiden flapped his wings widely, ascending himself higher and higher above the Buru villagers. He thought, _Hmm, how to kill them all at once, but still make it look cool…_

Crash panicked a little after looking at the incredibly distant encampment. Hanging from Reiden's pointy chin, he tried hoisting himself back up, as if distancing himself further from the Earth would solve all his problems.

Reiden suddenly noticed the little bandicoot struggling keep hold on his face. He reached up and picked him off like leftover food around his mouth and held him between thumb, middle, and index fingers. He brought the bandicoot up in front of his eyes as he spoke to him loudly, "You know, you really have been causin' me some BIG problems since you and your friends showed up on my sacred land…and now, I'm gonna snap you in two…right in front of everybody."

He called down to the encampment, "Listen up, death row! You're all going to observe what happens when you screw with Emperor Reiden Long!"

From the ground, every head had turned up to watch the floating monster in horror. Suddenly, Coco noticed the small orange, yellow, and blue blob dangling in Reiden's left hand. She yelled to everyone near, "Hey—hey guys! That's Crash up there! Reiden has my brother!"

Clank squinted his green-lit eyes and asked, "Are you sure that's him?"

Jak strapped on his goggles and twisted the lenses. Through the scope, he could see Crash being held on his sides by Reiden's scaly fingers. The long-eared man took off his goggles and reluctantly assured, "Yeah Clank, he's got Crash."

Aku Aku said lowly, "This is not good…"

Up in the air, Crash slyly kept his hand behind him, holding the sword out of Reiden's view. It aligned up with his back, completely hidden from the dragon's large eyes. Since he was up close, Crash could actually see light yellow pupas.

Reiden boomed, "And now, you die—!"

Just as everyone had turned away to avoid witnessing the horror, Crash pulled out his sword from behind him and hurled it with all the might in his left arm.

Reiden's involuntary instincts forced him to blink at the last second; however, that still didn't take away the horrible pain in his left eyelid. He roared so loud, Crash was forced cover one ear and tilt his head on his shoulder to cover the other. Reiden's voice resounded to the earth and bounced back at them, "HEEEYYYAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

Coco looked up, and uncovered her eyes. She, Aku, Ratchet, Clank, Roxas, Riku, Kairi, Keira, and Jak n' Dax watched in amazement as Reiden clutched his left eye, screaming in agony. Smiling, Ratchet whispered, "Crash, you son-uv-a-gun…"

"Oh my gosh, what did he do to him?" Keira asked, half impressed, half terrified.

"I got the feeling we're about to find out…" said Roxas.

Clutching his eye with a shaky hand, Reiden thundered at the bandicoot in his hand, "DAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMNNNNN YOOOOOOUU! AAAAAHH, AAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Everyone heard Reiden Long's profane cry, obviously understanding the fact that Crash had done something to seriously tick him off. As the dragon slowly removed his hand from his face, they could see a shiny object lodged in his closed left eyelid.

Up above, Reiden ensnared his hand around Crash, tightly squeezing the bandicoot. With one hand closed around the bandicoot's body and the other pushing down on his furry head, Reiden screamed, "I'LL CRUSH YOU! JUST LIKE THE WOLF!"

"AAAAAAGGGHHH!" screamed Crash from the agonizing compression. His voice soon muffled underneath the hand pushing down over his head. "UUUUUGGGGHHH!"

Coco covered her ears, not favoring the horrible screams coming from her brother. Daxter watched with wide eyes. The ottsel said to his buddy, "Crash is a goner…Do something, Jak!"

"I can't…" said Jak, searching the floor for an answer.

"Well, fly up, or something!" Daxter pled.

Jak replied in a low tone, "That wouldn't make a difference, Dax."

Daxter suddenly went into deep thought. "Hmm, you're right. We'd probably get massacred on the way up there. Good call, Jak."

The others, Jak included, glared at the ottsel. Coco, however, hummed a different tune, "I know Crash will kill that little horsefly. Even when he's getting his guts squeezed outta him, he always beats the bad guys."

"_HUUUAAAAAAGGGHHH!" _screamed the bandicoot from up above.

Reiden squeezed harder and harder, saying grittily, "Die, you little rat…"

Suddenly, Crash stopped screaming his lungs out.

"Hmph, I guess he finally gave up," laughed Reiden.

To the vile emperor's surprise, his hands started to widen, as if against his will. "What the…" He squeezed tighter, only to see his hands widening off the bandicoot even more. After his hands had widened off the marsupial for quite a bit of length, Reiden saw that Crash was pushing away his scaly hand with both arms. "WHAT?"

_4. The Final Bout…_

"I…am not…your rat!"

Crash Bandicoot lifted up his head, pushing up on the other hand that had once forced him down. He hatefully stared into the terrified eye (and half opened left eye) of Dragon Reiden, shooting a hot beam through the warlord's entire body.

Using every fiber of his being, Crash screamed, "I AM A BANDICOOT, YOU IDIOT!"

The fire inside Crash combusted, taking full control now. And when it combusted, so did a white aura around the bandicoot, instantly freeing him from Reiden Long's grasp. As he and his golden jacket glowed with the white aura, he flew.

No one believed their eyes, but right there, high up above the earth, Crash Bandicoot was ascending upward past Reiden's gaping face. The glowing bandicoot held both arms outward, also looking like his back was hunched over as he continued his burning glare at the emperor; he ascended with one leg stretched down and the other bent at the knee, leaving a white trail of light below him.

Like a highly attractive magnet, the sword amputated itself from the scaly eyelid and placed its hilt in Crash's right hand. Reiden winced a little, although the real pain was yet to come.

Back on Earth, Coco and Aku Aku had (somewhat) jumped for joy. While Crash flew, every village man, woman, and child applauded and cheered for their glowing savior like an epic chorus.

From the nearby battlefield, Bentley and Sly Cooper looked up in amazement, screaming with joy, "GO CRASH!"

Coco hugged Ratchet tightly, shouting through a muffled voice, "I told ya so…!

The Lombax replied happily, "I never doubted him for a minute! Hey…are you crying?"

"Shaddup…it's the mountain cedar."

Clank walked up and corrected, "No, my scanners indicate that the liquid was not triggered by—"

Coco interrupted, "Clank, what's the value of pi?"

"That's easy. Pi equals three point one, four, one, five, nine, two, six, five, three, five…"

Daxter jumped repeatedly on Jak's skull, messing up his hair and singing, "Yeah, Crash, you so fly! Send that freak all sky-high!"

Overjoyed, Riku shouted, "YES!" Without thinking, he joined Keira in a tight hug. Jak was too annoyed by Daxter to notice.

Roxas just watched Kairi smile with her eyes closed; she was probably just glad that it was all coming to an end.

After going up a fair height above Reiden, Crash stopped flying and just levitated in midair, almost looking like he was standing casually on the ozone layer.

Reiden panicked, "No…no! I'm ending this! NOT YOU!"

Reiden inhaled his last breath of fire, this time expanding his lungs the farthest they could go. However, when he exhaled, a ball of purple Mojo collected in front of his mouth and nostrils. It expanded as he breathed deeper and deeper into it, making its diameter cross the distance between him and Crash. As it grew, lighting up the earth, dark storm clouds formed over them, starting a light drizzle.

The rain drops flicked at Crash's jacket, which caught a powerful draft from the weather change. It started pouring in heavier, actually reaching the heroes and villagers on the ground. The rain fell into the large destructive bomb, evaporating before contact. Reiden's insane glare became drenched as well; his facial wounds began to drip with watery fluid. Crash kept glowering with the same fierce look, probably oblivious to the pelting water.

Sounding psychotic, Reiden yelled, "EAT MOJO, BANDICOOT!" With a heavily winded blow, Reiden discharged his blast at the bandicoot, hoping that a Super-Bowl sized ball of energy would vanquish a little "rat". (3)

Crash's plan was simple: hit it like a baseball. He held his sword over his shoulder like a batter on home plate and diagonally swung at the Mojo Blast, reversing its destructive direction.

_A blast so powerful, only to be swatted right back at me, _the emperor thought emptily. As Reiden watched the blast rapidly approach him, three things materialized before his eyes, most likely from ancient memory: a father being executed, a shady old woman, and a dying son in his arms.

Immediately on contact, the blast exploded, creating an opaque cloud of smoke and fire. As the rain continued to pour down, Reiden surged out the other end of the explosion, carrying a few strands of the cloud with him. He was flying back with all limbs and tail thrown in front of him. His fall angled downward, plummeting steadily towards his great fortress.

And if you have a quarter of a brain, then you know that Reiden Long collided with the armored palace; first, he tore through one of the repel towers, completely demolishing the structure. Then, he hit the same spot where he and Roxas previously fought, which caused the long tower that lead up to his lair to crumble. Meanwhile, the main central structure completely shattered under his immensity. Part of the tower that led to his throne had fallen on him, burying the dragon, while the rest of it had fallen on the battlefield.

Reiden lazily pushed the rubble off his body, obviously sustaining injuries. Right before he convulsed back to human form, he vomited something, much like a dying bird would do.

Crash shot through the raining air, Reiden-bound…

Meanwhile, the iguana guy named Brian Rae from, like, twenty eight chapters ago showed up on the messy battlefield in a custodian's uniform. Apparently on his first day of work, he carried a broomstick, mop, and bucket. With flat eyes, he started sweeping up some bones, muttering under his breath, "I knew I should've gotten that racetrack maintenance job in Sicily."

* * *

Dragon Reiden

**Age: **?  
**Gender:** Male  
**Species: **Colossal Dragon

Reiden's power, temper, and overall stature may just literally hit the roof when he's forced to enter this form. As a boy, Reiden's life was cursed by a shady old woman who was later revealed to be a witch. In times of high emotion or unrelenting pain, Reiden would unspeakably transform into this foul creature and murder anyone in his path. After years of counseling, Draksin showed up and found Reiden, offering to help control the madness inside him. Reiden obliged, as anger management classes weren't his forte. During the years after learning to control it, Reiden fought his way to being a donned war general and, soon enough, an emperor, all whilst utilizing his terrible dragon form. Reiden's cursed form is a creation of _CadeXHybrid_.

_(1) This would be so violent. I mean, people and animals getting there limbs and heads chopped off? Just sickening._

_(2) For those anatomically illiterate, the sclera is the "whites of the eye"._

_(3) The Saints are goin' in, baby! Crush those Colts!_

_WHEW! Wait, let me say that one more time: WHEW! That was more fun than I thought it would be! Man, I love action. But one thing's for sure: no more full-scale wars._

_Speaking of wars, I probably should've told you that I tried modeling a lot of the Trooper-fighting sequences from the Dynasty Warriors franchise from the good fellas at KOEI. I thought it fit so well with our heroes running around from Battlefield A to Battlefield B, slicing up hundreds of baddies, which is basically what you do in those games._

_Anyways, the almighty Reiden Long has been cut down to size along with his precious fortress. While there is plenty of room to celebrate, our legendary heroes will soon realize that he was only a fifth of the task completed. It's time for them to head home for a little R&R. Not reading and reviewing, rest and relaxation!_

_But before they go, Reiden has a few last words for Crash in the thankfully short chapter, Dying Words!_


	32. Dying Words

Chapter 32: Dying Words

While Brian continued sweeping the bones into little piles, Crash zoomed through the air. The rain had halted for a little bit, still leaving dark clouds above the mountain pass. He descended steadily, zeroing in on the battered human body of Reiden Long.

The dethroned emperor lay on top of some rubble, tall structures-turned-debris all around him. He lay on his back with his head lazily skewed to the side; the rubble beneath him was on an incline, tilting him forward like an extremely uncomfortable armchair. Crash Bandicoot touched the ground, eyeing the emperor sternly. As he walked up closer to Reiden, Crash started observing the warlord's injuries.

Almost all of his upper body was covered in nicks, bruises, and dirt, probably from the falling tower. His right shoulder had a gash going up to his collar bone; his abdominals were badly bruised, along with three cuts randomly located on his pectorals; his gi pants were ripped at the knees, upper left thigh, and lower right shin, all revealing deep bloody wounds. His left eye was closed, revealing a dark red spot on his eyelid, and the eyebrow above it was leaking blood from Wolf Link's bite, along with the upper part of his nose.

Some of the debris behind Reiden had formed a bug-sized water slide, pouring a petite torrent of water on Reiden's spiky hair. Obviously, the water bothered him, so he lazily picked up a rock and jammed the little water spout, blocking any further flow into his hair. His right eye suddenly opened wide, noticing Crash standing in front of him.

Crash drew his father's sword and aimed it at Reiden's chest like a spear. To his surprise, the conquered emperor actually started chuckling. Against the pain, Reiden said, "That's right, send me back to Hell where I belong. It's hard for me to believe, but I've been overthrown. Hmph, worse probably would have happened if I tried to confront Draksin, anyway."

The entity inside Crash suddenly subdued, as if falling asleep. The bandicoot didn't lower his blade, however, as he said, "Your time is over, Reiden."

"I know," Reiden replied. "Just glad I could die like a true warrior."

Having a change of mind, Crash shielded his sword. He said in a kind tone, "You know, you could be a really good person if you were a little more honorable…and less evil."

Reiden only noticed Crash shielding his blade. "What—what are you doing? You're supposed to kill me!"

"Sorry, that's not how I do things."

With a look of anger mixed with desperation, Reiden pled, "Look at me. I'm at three centimeters of my life. My insides feel like a trash heap. I know you're the goodie-type, so putting me outta my misery would actually be the DESCENT thing to do! Don't make me go through this pain any longer!" His voice stifled on the last word.

Crash crossed his arms and said, "That'll be your punishment for all you've done, then." He turned around and started walking away.

Before the bandicoot got too far, Reiden called with a surprisingly gentler tone, "Crash…wait."

Crash turned around, startled by Reiden's kind tone. Reiden said, "Crash…you're a pretty descent dude. And you're also incredibly strong, something my superior will be all over."

Puzzled, Crash asked, "What do you mean?"

"Draksin has been looking for someone to take his place when he kicks the bucket for quite a long time, now. I was his first choice. When he first found me, I was already a supreme ruler. He promised me eternal life and to have powers beyond any war general. He gave me the gift of flight and taught me how to fully control fire and the wild dragon form I had been cursed with. He also helped me save my son…"

Crash looked on, deeply fascinated. Reiden continued, "After years of him using my powers to gain more members in our little clan, I soon realized that we weren't his students. We were all his slaves, carrying out vicious tasks of conquering this, and destroy-destroy that…But we didn't care. We got our pay, so what did it matter? Well, it cost us our souls. I mean that literally, too. Spending a few centuries in Oblivion kinda sucks. And it's taken me till just now to realize Draksin wasn't worth my life."

Reiden started to sound deeply saddened as he said, "Don't be his slave, Crash. Not like I was…Draksin will use every part of you to make you his puppet."

Crash replied, "Neither of us will have to worry about that."

Reiden smirked a little. "Hmph."

Crash looked around before saying, "Maybe you should leave this place before anyone sees you. I doubt they'll be as forgiving as me. You know, with the whole 'enslave everybody' thing. Oh yeah, and you did kinda destroyed their village, too. They're gonna be ticked off at both of us…"

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry about me. I'll take care of myself. Now go back and tell everyone about how you 'slayed the dragon'."

"Right. See ya." Crash turned around and walked back to the others; obviously remembering how to fly eluded him. Along the way, he saw what Reiden had thrown up earlier. In a really nasty pile of vomit, Sage lay there, snoring.

After being kicked awake, Sage shot up and shouted, "Oh my god! How long was I out?"

"I don't know, fifteen minutes?" replied Crash with a grin.

The man removed eight empty laffy-taffy wrappers from his pockets and dropped them on the ground. "I don't know where these came from…but I'm glad I had 'em before that dragon freak started chewing on me."

The bandicoot looked back to see that Reiden had disappeared from his resting spot. Without a care in the world, Crash replied to Sage, "Come on, let's get you back. Your family would really like to see you."

* * *

_It seems Reiden has had a sudden change of heart, thanks to Crash's kindness. Meanwhile, the others await Crash's return, already excited about Reiden's defeat. And that's all Crash will tell them, that Reiden was defeated…_

_In the meantime, Brian Rae will help restore Buru Village and our heroes will return to Wumpa in one piece. But as they unwind, a corporation in England has trouble finding a new trend to endorse. Their solution? Will it even affect what's happening now? Why should you care? _

_That junk might be answered in the next chapter, A New Exec!_


	33. A New Exec

Chapter 33: A New Exec

The Wipeout Corporation building in London, England, 2:55 p.m.…

"Come now, people, these ideas are extremely lacking!" complained an old British man in a gray suit. He was sitting at the head of a rectangular table full of other men and women in formal attire. Apparently, they were all supposed to be observing the Power Point slideshow being presented on a white board on the opposite side of the room. This man was middle aged with balding hair, and he had a very displeased expression.

The person presenting the slideshow about edible Play-doh pocketed his laser pointer and asked, "I'm sorry, sir, am I boring you?"

"As a matter of fact you are! You're fired." The rich man pointed towards the door, signifying that he wanted the other guy to leave.

As the guy left with his head hanging low, one of the other British executives sitting at the table said, "I actually thought eating Play-doh sounded pretty fetching, Mr. Biggs!"

Sounding interested, Mr. Biggs asked, "Really? You did?"

The other man replied, "Yes, sir!"

Frowning again, Biggs retorted, "You're fired, too."

After that guy picked up his suitcase and left with his also head hanging low, Biggs held down a button on the intercom device located on the table. He talked into it, "Hello, Susana. Send in the next one, please."

The device spoke back in a female's voice, "Are you sure, Mr. Biggs? These next ones look a bit strange."

"I can care less if they're Bugs and Daffy—just send them in."

A woman sitting at the table asked, "Sir, what exactly are you looking for? It seems nothing shown today can satisfy you."

The rich executive man replied, "I want something that's going to be bigger than the World Cup or the American Super Bowl—something that really shakes the crib—something that puts people's lives at stake. It should be so dangerous yet captivating that the money just pours in our direction. You know what I mean?"

For awhile, no one answered because they were all in deep thought. One man commented, "Wait, something that shakes the crib? That'll hurt the baby!"

"Get out. You're fired, too."

At the same time the fired man opened the door to leave, two strange characters emerged through. They consisted of a male and female; the tall man was actually a wolfish creature, and he had long dreadlocks snaking from his head. He wore sunglasses and a long gray jacket with the sleeves ripped off. The woman next to him looked somewhat human; she wore a peculiar tight black outfit, along with two swords attached to her black belt. Most notable was her silver mask; it was encrusted with the features of a demonic being's face.

While everyone else in the room looked at them with bewilderment, the fired man trying to exit chastised, "I'm sorry madam, but you're going to have to take your pet outside. Animals are not allowed in—"

Without a word, the wolf-man grabbed the guy by the throat and hurled him upwards into the ceiling. His legs protruded from the broken ceiling, running on nothing but air.

"Thanks, Bifford," said the ninja-lady behind the mask.

As they both walked forward into the room, Mr. Biggs stood up and commanded, "Call security to get these troublemakers out of my building!"

"On it, sir," said a man at the table, getting up to press a white button on the wall.

Unfortunately, the masked woman drew a six-pronged shuriken like lighting and threw it across the room. The sharp, metal weapon landed itself in the man's right shoulder blade, tearing through the thread of his gray suit. He cried out rather girlishly in pain and fell to the floor, shaking.

"AH! I CAN'T BREATHE—I CAN'T BREATHE!"

"Oh, he'll be fine," said the woman in a heavy British accent. She removed the silver mask, giving way to wavy, dark brown hair that fell to her shoulders. The strands of hair that fell over her charming face were complimented by wide, emerald eyes. After moving the strands behind her ear, she requested, "Oh Bifford, will you go and help that poor man while I start the negotiations?"

The wolf-man shot a look to her before nodding and treading over to the whimpering man. As he passed some of the people sitting at the table, they scooted away, clearly freaked out by his physical appearance. As a response to their apprehension, he grunted loudly.

The ninja-lady announced in her British tone, "I apologize for my friend here. Isaac gets a bit of an attitude when I call him by his last name."

Mr. Biggs began to open his mouth to bark something else, but the brown haired woman raised a threatening ninja-star, shutting him up completely. She asked with an impatient look, "May we begin our session…Mr. Biggs, was it?"

Reluctantly deciding to go along, the executive replied with a sneer, "Er, yes. Show us your new idea, if you must…"

Putting down the shuriken, she gladly introduced herself, "Well, I go by the name of Arden Calypso, but you all will call me by my last name."

One foolish man sitting near her snickered under his breath, "Pff,_ will_…"

Calypso drew her sword and swung it around until the blade's tip met the half-inch space in front of the man's neck. His eyes suddenly went into tennis-ball-mode, and he got the message. (1)

She continued, almost as if nothing had happened, but still kept the blade dead on his neck as she said, "Well, Mr. Biggs, I hear your company has the thirst for a new craze to make you richer. Lucky for you, I have just the remedy…"

His interest piqued, Mr. Biggs sat back down in his chair and leaned back with arms crossed, saying, "Really, now? You think you have a proposal for us?"

Suddenly, the man that had been previously shuriken'd in the scapula yelped in pain from the floor as Isaac ripped out the star with his bear (wolf) hands. Paying them no mind, Calypso continued, "Yes, we do. In fact, I've been thinking of this scheme for some time now."

"And what kept you from coming to us earlier?" asked Biggs with a smirk.

The woman lowered her sword from the other man's neck, triggering a long exhale of relief from his mouth. "We were in…a far away place. Now, my whole concept is to change the way extreme sports are done in this hemisphere; I want a new variety of racing competitions. These competitions will feature technology far more advanced and sophisticated than even this century's finest.

"Imagine that you would become the owner of new and fresh sponsors like Feisar, Icaras, Assegai, Piranha, Mirage, Goteki, and many others. Now, imagine that each of those sponsors own a line of racing, jet-powered vehicles and that every time their drivers used their vehicles in the races, or if their logos were endorsed by smaller third party companies, they'd earn millions of Euros, in turn, making you all richer than before."

Everyone at the rectangular table gave each other approving looks, but that wouldn't mean anything without Mr. Biggs' look of approval. Simultaneously, they all looked back to observe the rich executive, of whom was slightly grinning.

"I like it so far," he said, scratching his chin. "This whole 'new age of racing' idea is definitely sounding fresh. One question, though: how are we going to get drivers to compete?"

Noticing that Biggs was already using words like "we" and "going to", Calypso smiled and answered, "I was hoping you'd ask. Eight of the most elite drivers will be picked from three rounds of preliminary qualifiers, and after a grand-scale tournament, the winner will be granted one wish—by me."

A woman at the table asked in disbelief, "Wait a moment, you can grant wishes? What are you, a genie?"

After hearing a few chuckles from all around the table, she answered sincerely, "No, madam, I am a sorceress. Please don't make the mistake of calling me a genie again." Obviously, everyone took the black clad lady with the swords and shuriken seriously. Who wouldn't?

Mr. Biggs stood up and walked over to the dangerous woman, Euros lighting up his eyeballs. With an evil grin, he shook her hand and proclaimed, "Well, Wipeout Corp., it seems we've finally found our new trend. Miss Calypso, we have a deal."

* * *

_If this were the uncut version, I swear Calypso would've decapitated that guy just like Lucy Lu did in Kill Bill. That was epic…_

Sora: Whoa…where am I?

_My brain. Since Roxas is out in the field, you've gotta deliver some bios, so get crackin', boyo…_

Sora: Oh, is this what Roxas does that's so 'thankless and empty'?

_Thankless and empty? He said that? That's it. I'm using Aku Aku next time._

Sora: Look, do you want me to get to these bios or not?

…_Yes, please._

Sora: Okay then. Where's Isaac's bio?

_Not here yet; we'll worry about him later._

Sora: Got it. Here we go…man, there are a lot of big words here…'subsequently'?

Timothy Biggs

**Age:** 55

**Gender:** Male

**Species:** Human

Mr. T. Biggs is the British bigwig CEO of Wipeout Corporations. Often times in his career, he has wanted to find ways to get richer off new trends. Before he became the chief executive officer and attained countless riches, he was the proud son of a chief executive who attained countless riches. However, Timothy's father died early, leaving him at the tender age of twelve to take over the business. Subsequently, Mr. Biggs looks back on his childhood with utmost pride. To this day, he can't remember his father's full name. Only Biggs, which is fine with him. Timothy Biggs is an original character of _CadeXHybrid_.

Arden Calypso 

**Age:** ???

**Gender:** Female

**Species:** Human/Sorceress

Some five hundred years ago, Calypso, believe it or not, was a wish-granting spirit trapped in an ancient necklace found on the island of Crete, otherwise known as a genie. During her sensitive days, people would find the necklace, rub it, and ask for three wishes, all of which she would thanklessly grant (sounds a lot like Genie from Agrabah). Anyway, she devised a plan, which consisted of using her feminine qualities to seduce the next man who would summon her. Then, she would convince him to wish for her freedom, so they can get married and all that good stuff. After receiving emancipation, she instantly killed the man. It's also worth noting that the man she killed was the king of Athens at the time. Later on, she spent many years making men fight for free wishes and her attention, often giving them more than what they wished for or taking their requests too literally. On the side, she ruthlessly hunted down targets on other people's hit-lists, lurking in the shadows like a ninja. Draksin recruited her after seeing how skilled in silent killing she was, seeing as how no one throughout Athens could figure out where the homicides were coming from. Arden was Draksin's number two, about three hundred years after Reiden, and became her leader's personal assassin. _CadeXHybrid_ describes Calypso as a brown-haired, green-eyed version of Megan Fox. Obsessed. Calypso is an O.C. of _CadeXHybrid_.

Sora: Wait, Megan Fox? Who's that?

_On the next chapter, our legends say goodbye to Buru and head home, unaware of the evil competition about to unfold. _

Sora: Hey! You're ignoring me!

_And a fallen hero's pride is shattered—_

Sora: HEL-LO! I'm talkin' to you!

_So don't miss the good old fashioned, reality-type chapter, Lost Dreams and Ramen!_


	34. Lost Dreams and Ramen Noodles

_**The following contains mature dialogue that doesn't seem to fit the preexisting rating. So, to balance it out…**_

Crunch: Hey-ya, kids! Don't forget to donate all that you can for the victims of Haiti! Natural disasters can be devastating, and the world would do the same for us! Also, bragging about what you did with a girl is no one else's business but your own. Keep it that way, _fool!_

Chapter 34: Lost Dreams and Ramen

Now that Reiden's fortress had been destroyed, the skies were now clear of smoke, unpolluted of any more factory fumes. The bright blue, afternoon sky was free to shine as brightly as it desired.

Back in the encampment, the heroes and villagers had a small celebration after successfully reviving Wolf Link and warding off the invaders. Glen and Gladdus had helped turn Link and Roxas back into there original forms.

Link sat on a tree log, staring at his clenched fists. His green tunic's top was untied down to reveal some bandages wrapped around his bare midsection. His white undershirt was slung over his shoulders with each end resting on his lap.

Link closed his eyes, reliving the moment he had almost been crushed to death. He tightened his fists, reopening his eyes in the process.

Meanwhile, the heroes were being congratulated by the grateful survivors of Buru Village.

"Once again, we thank you mysterious anthropomorphic strangers for all your help. The humans, too!" thanked Madam Saoki, shaking Jak's hand.

"No problem," replied Jak in a tough-guy's tone. "You should be thanking Crash, though. He's the one who finished off Reiden." He looked over to the bandicoot and gave him a grin, receiving a nervous grin in return.

Keira rubbed the back of her neck and said, "Gee, I wish we could help restore your village. It's completely totaled, now."

Sage, still covered in vomit, said optimistically, "Hey, we're just glad we have a village to restore. Besides, that iguana guy's cleanin' things up. Right, Paige?" Sage looked over to see his daughter running around with Lil. He called to her, "Paige! Give me a hug…"

The little girl who was happy to have her father back yet extremely disgusted backed up slowly and said, "That's okay, daddy. I just…um…ate this chicken roast, and I have _really_ bad breath."

Standing next to Jak, Clank rotated his eyes around, indicating the scanners were functioning. After a brief pause, Clank stated, "My scanners indicate that your breath is of an acceptable fragrance. No need to worry, Miss Paige!"

Paige gave the bot a sideways look and whispered, _"Do you ever shut up?"_

Standing next to Ratchet, Daxter chimed in, "No, I don't…" He looked from Paige to Clank and apologized, "Oh, sorry. Force of habit."

Leaning on a crutch, Jem commented, "Talkative little sidekicks, but heroic nonetheless." Talking to Sora and Crash, Jem continued, "I hope you guys have a safe trip home. Also, have you seen my older daughter?"

"Um…" Sora looked over Jem's shoulder and spotted Riku and Len exiting a tent together.

Crash must've seen them, too, because he started saying, "Hey, look there she—"

Sora quickly interrupted, "Uh, no sir! I think you should look over here some more, cuz that's where I last saw her! I swear!"

Giving the nervous boy a raised eyebrow, Jem replied, "Uh…okay? I'll just search around some more, then…"

As Jem walked past Crash and Sora, they watched as Riku gave Len a handshake. The bandicoot and Keyblader gave each other bewildered looks while Riku and Len carried out a short conversation and parted in different directions.

The silver-haired boy approached Crash and Sora, greeting them with, "Hey guys! Boy, am I ready for some R&R!"

While Sora and Crash stared at him with mouths agape, Kairi approached the three guys. She said, "Everyone's ready to go. I think I heard Murray's tummy growl something brunch-related." She glanced at Sora and Crash's perplexed expressions. "What's up?"

"Riku's up to no good," answered Sora with a prying look in his eyes.

Riku nervously looked to the side as he retaliated, "Am not…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," whoa'ed Crash. "Just to make sure, both of us think Riku de-sun-flowered that other girl who was in the tent with him, right?"

"WHAT?!" shouted Kairi.

A little late, Riku chimed in, "Um, oh yeah…what?"

Sora asked, "Riku, you didn't really…did you?"

Riku broke his nervous expression and laughed loudly, "Ahahaha! Of course not! She was only helping me find my Soul Eater keychain. I thought I lost it."

Crash, Kairi, and Sora all exhaled a single, "Oh…"

"…then we went straight to second base…" added Riku with a smirk.

"I'm outta here, too adult," said Crash, covering his ears and walking away.

"Me too," said a ticked Kairi, following the bandicoot.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Sora asked Riku with an inquiring grin, "…Really? Straight to second base?"

Laughing, Riku answered, "Nah, I as lying about that, too. We only made out like crazy."

Meanwhile, Glen and Gladdus were arguing over who should teleport the heroes back to Wumpa.

"No way! You got to transform the chosen one!" protested Glennatus.

"Yeah, and I did a good job of doing it! Now let me do this!" retorted Gladdus.

"Not happening! It's MY turn!"

"Says who?"

"Says me! Why? Cuz I'm older, darn it!"

Sly Cooper interrupted, "Hey, CAN IT, you two! We don't care who teleports us back, just SOMEBODY better do some teleporting right now!"

Both Precursors held guilty expressions as they said in unison, "Sorry, Mister Cooper…"

"Thank you," said Sly, catching his cool again. "By the way, what are you guys gonna do about that crazy guy?"

The Precursors looked over their shoulders to see General Eurathaccus being tormented by some village children. The General was crouched in the fetal position while ten little boys and girls surrounded him, kicking and cheering at the Twili.

"Let's jump on him!" cheered a boy.

"No…it can't end like this…IT JUST CAN'T!" shouted the General over the joyous cries of the kids. "Wait…I've got one last grenade…better use it wisely!"

"Uh-oh," muttered Gladdus. "We should get 'em outta here. Now!"

"Before we depart, I suggest we do a quick head count," suggested Bentley. "While it would be slightly comical, we still don't want to leave anyone behind."

"Good idea, Bentley," said Jak. "Hey guys, gather around for a quick roll-call!" As soon as all the heroes had crowded near him, Jak pointed to everyone as he counted to himself silently, "Me, Dax, Keira, Bentley, Murray, Sly…that's six. Clank, Crunch, Coco, Donald, and Ratchet…that makes eleven. And then there's Aku Aku, Riku, Kairi, Crash, Goofy, Sora, and…Where's Link?"

"Right here." Link walked forward to the rest of the heroes with his shield and sword held in one hand, slung over his shoulder. "I'm ready. Let's go."

Coco scratched her head and wondered out loud, "Gosh that almost reminds me of something—I just can't remember what."

Smirking, Crash Bandicoot replied, "Oh, it's prob'ly nothing."

Jak turned around to Glen and said, "We're ready to get going."

"Cool," the orange haired precursor replied. "Say guh'bye to Buru, guys!"

With smiles on their faces (and somewhat anime-esque happy eyes!), Crash, Coco, Donald, Crunch, Sora, Kairi, Aku, Sly, Murray, Goofy, Riku, Daxter, Keira, Clank, Bentley, and Ratchet all exclaimed, "Guh'bye, Buru!" (Jak gave a quiet grin; Link, however, remained completely expressionless.)

Joined by Jem, Sage, Jiyrai, and the hulking man Han, Madam Saoki exclaimed, "Goodbye, heroes!"

The rest of the villagers cheered for them as Glen levitated above the heroes. With Gladdus floating next to him, holding her father by his vest's collar, he summoned his Precursor powers and illuminated the area with the bright light. In a single flash, the heroes and precursors vanished from the encampment.

"What an interesting group of individuals," said Madam Saoki, staring at the vacant spot.

Suddenly, a man with brown, wavy hair wearing swimming trunks popped out from behind a tent and yelled, "Finally, I'm FREE! I, Matthew Mcconaughey, can finally roam this mountain valley to shoot my new movie, Failure to Launch 2: Village Idiot!"

"Oh, CRUD!" shrieked Jem.

"Wait heroes, come back!" shouted Paige. "We NEED you!"

Sage drew his sword and slowly walked toward the annoying actor. In a serious tone, the village man said, "Wait here—I'll handle this…"

* * *

Wumpa Island, 6:56 p.m.…

In front of the Bandicoot Home, Mario spotted a caterpillar crawling next to his face. Like a frog, he shot his tongue out and snatched the little creature. He retracted his tongue and ate the bug, graciously savoring the meal. The truth was that he was still trapped under the pile of rusty pipes, and he had to feed himself one way or another. He had been conscious for two days, waking up around the same time Coco, Donald, and Murray had completed their first mission on infiltrating the fortress, which was two o'clock in the morning in Wumpa Island.

Mario's five o'clock shadow had grown deeper and more rugged, and he could feel many pipes poking at his stomach. For hours, he had been trying to wiggle his chubby legs free from the throng of metal, and so far, he had made some serious progress. There were now some pretty wide spaces around his legs that allowed for partial room to slide out from under the pipes. Careful to not rumble the pipes, Mario slowly edged outward. "Almost there, baby…sweet freedom here I come!"

He had edged so far out the pipe-trap, he could see his knees again. "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

In a brief flash of light, the legends appeared, all looking tuckered out. The Precursors of Twilight were absent; they must've returned to their heavenly sanctuaries. Goofy had appeared too close to the heap of rusty pipes and fell into it. With a yelp and a loud clatter, Goofy laid spread-eagled in the garbage. While Mario screamed in the highest pitch possible, the court knight chuckled, "A-hiyuck, whoopsie!"

Coco quickly came to the rescue. "Goofy, I think you're ON someone!"

"Really?" Goofy looked down to see a man's shins getting crushed under the pile of pipes and his weight. "Oh, pardon me, sir—"

"Oh, just get the heck awfa me!" Mario shouted gruffly.

Coco helped Goofy up and started pulling the pipes of the man. They were buried pretty deep into the ground, so she had to use a lot of strength to pull each pipe free. Eventually, Goofy and Murray joined her in pulling the pipes out the ground. After successfully removing enough pipes, Mario wobbled to his feet and gave the bandicootess an extremely ticked look.

"You mind tellin' me where the flip you went?!" scolded the stereotypically Italian plumber.

"Gee, I'm sorry! I forgot you were even here…didja get the water running yet?"

Mario exploded, "Get the wahta runnin'? GET THE WAHTA RUNNIN'? How about getting' the circulation in my legs runnin'? Do you even know that I was stuck under those pipes for the past three stinkin' days? I had to eat BUGS!"

Crash scratched his head and asked, "Does anybody know who that guy is? I think I've seen him before, but I can't remember squat right now."

Aku Aku explained, "He's that plumber Coco hired to get water running in our house."

Sora added, "Yeah—the one that Link nearly killed with a kickball. Remember that, Crash?"

Link scoffed and carried his equipment inside the house (the door was still wide open). Crash laughed and said, "OH! Now I remember him! The guy who talks all funny! _'I'm gonna get ta wahta runnin'!_" the bandicoot mimicked in a raspy voice.

Mario shouted, "And I love the way how none of ya decided to help me up after I got buried under that wreckage! Don't try to say that 'chu didn't notice me, cuz I heard the hippo here ask if you all were just gonna leave me. Then, in plain English, YOU said yes!"

Talking to the plumber, Murray explained, "We're really sorry, but we had to stop an evil overlord from conquering half of China! There were stealth missions, some tower busting, a big huge war, and a dragon chase! It was AWESOME!"

Coco asked in a caring tone, "How can we make it up to you?"

"How 'bout a decent meal and a place to sleep?" asked Mario, rubbing his scraggly chin.

The bandicootess wanted to say, "My God, you are such a deadbeat bum!" But instead, she forced herself to say cheerfully, "Sure, we've got room!"

"Thanks, I really appreciate that! It's a lo-awng way back ta Chicago. I promise I won't be a burden!"

Sly yawned, showing every tooth. "Man, I'm hittin' the sack early, tonight. What's for dinner?"

"Yeah, I'm starving like crazy!" declared Ratchet, rubbing circles around his furry belly.

"Oh, shoot!" Coco cursed. "I forgot about food…I hope everyone likes Ramen Noodles!"

* * *

Later that night, Sly, Crunch, and Ratchet helped in making the large batch of noodle soup. On the counter, many empty paper wrappings were littered all over the place with various colors. Coco used a large pot to boil the many cakes of hardened noodles, causing steam to rise all over the kitchen's ceiling.

Coco shouted, "Alright, everyone decide on a flavor!"

The others, who were sitting on barstools around the kitchen island, at the small dinner table, and in the living room across the house, pondered for a second about which flavor they were hungering for. Sitting across the house on the couch next to Goofy, Murray came up with a solution first: "Shrimp!"

At the dinner table, Sora shouted his flavor second: "Chicken!" Donald shot a quick glare.

Keira, Kairi, and Daxter shouted from around the nearby kitchen island, "Pork!"

On the other end of the kitchen island, Jak, Mario, and Donald decided to sound like tough guys, so they shouted, "Beef!"

Sitting in between Crash and Sora at the dinner table, Aku Aku asked, "Do we have anymore oriental flavoring?"

"How about that sweet creamy chicken flavor?" hollered Crash. Donald slowly turned around to give him a sour look.

Sitting in the fourth chair with a few phonebooks under him, Clank requested, "Can you check to see if there is any WD-40 Lubricant flavoring?"

"Goofy and I want chili flavor!" exclaimed Bentley from the living room on one of the armchairs. "Riku, what do you want?"

Slouching in the second armchair, Riku hollered over to the kitchen, "I don't know, just get me pork or something!"

Back in the kitchen, Crunch put his hands on his hips and yelled to everyone in the house, "HEY! This ain't no family restaurant, fools!"

Sly demanded, "You guys need to pick one thing!"

Coco noticed Link didn't give a suggestion. She called to the Hylian warrior who had his back against the nearby fridge, "Hey, Macho-Man, what flavor?"

With a glazed look, Link answered, "Beef."

"Beef it is!" exclaimed Coco, taking five packets of beef flavoring and pouring them into the boiling pot of noodles.

Ratchet helped fix nineteen bowls for everybody (don't forget Mario!), one with a wide straw for the witchdoctor mask, one with only lubricant oil for Clank, and seventeen regular bowls of noodles for everyone else.

Although everyone was scattered around the house's kitchen and living room, Coco asked, "Can we at least say grace, first?"

With a few moans, they agreed to join Coco in prayer. With her head bowed and hands clasped together, she started, "Dear Lord in Heaven, we thank—"

"_GRACE!"_ shouted everyone else in the house, excluding Jak, Link, Clank, Kairi, and Aku Aku. All but Coco laughed and began slurping up the hot, delicious noodles.

"That was rude," the bandicootess pouted.

Daxter entangled some steaming noodles on his fork and gulped them down immediately. Realizing that he should've blown on them first, the ottsel started heaving with watery eyes. Quickly, he swallowed the hot pasta, diving onto the island counter in the process. He coughed and wheezed in what he thought was his own bowl.

"Whew!" After noticing everyone who sat around the island table was staring at him, he tried playing it off, "Man, these Ramen Noodles ain't nowhere near as hot as they are back home, eh Jak?"

"Try cooling it off like this, Daxter," said Keira. Along with Kairi, Jak, Donald, and Mario, she held a clump of noodles on her fork above the bowl, allowing the food to cool off in the air by itself.

"Oh, I see. Must be some kinda native voodoo trick, or something!"

Mario said sarcastically, "I'd like ta thank ya for coughin' up your lungs in my bowl of noodles, by the way."

Later that night, when everybody had finished eating the Ramen Noodles, Ratchet decided to help Coco out with the dishes. They stood next to each other in front of the sink, rinsing, washing, and drying all nineteen bowls and seventeen forks.

Coco laughed, "There is no way that you fought a giant Furby!"

Ratchet replied, "It was called a Protopet, and yes, I did!"

"Well, I've beaten a giant mech-suit robot about eight times already with nothing but a slingshot!"

"Really?" Ratchet chuckled. "What did you use, your 'eye patches' as elastic?"

"Oh, that was clever…" insulted Coco.

"I know, a cheap shot…kinda like this one!" The Lombax flicked his soapy fingers at the bandicootess's face, spraying bubbles all over.

With a beard and bifocals bubble combo, Coco retorted, "That's real mature!"

While the two continued to play at the sink, Sly entered the kitchen from the living room. Noticing that there were many more people than there was the other night he had spent in the house, he asked, "So, how exactly are we gonna figure out the bedroom situation?"

Relaxing in the chair, Crash flipped open one eyelid and answered, "We'll just go to a room…"

"Crash," said Sora, "I think he means that there aren't enough rooms for us all to have by ourselves."

"Yes," agreed Aku Aku. "We definitely need to figure out who is sleeping where."

"What are you guys talkin' about?" Crash sprang up and started counting rooms. "Let's see, four rooms upstairs…two rooms down here…that's six. And…" The bandicoot began to count the people in his house. "Nineteen. I think I see the problem, now…"

"Well," said Sly, "Goofy's already camped out on the couch. We could just push the armchairs in front of each other for somebody. And the rest will have to share rooms."

Clank released a belch before saying, "I do not require a room. I can just enter sleep mode anywhere in the house."

From the nearby kitchen island, Daxter said, "Hook me up with that armchair idea. Sounds like a cozy enough place for a naughty ottsel like me."

"I guess we can figure something out for everybody else," said the raccoon.

Riku entered the kitchen and announced, "See ya, guys. I'm gonna go wash up at that lake. So if you need me—"

"No way!" shrieked Keira. "You and your friends got a chance last time. It's our turn!"

Daxter hopped onto the counter and complained, "Yeah, I think I gotta rash under my left—!"

Kairi smacked her hand over the filthy ottsel's mouth. Not wanting to discover where that rash was located, she pled, "Just let them use the lake, Riku…"

Followed by Daxter, Keira got down from her barstool. Along the way to the front door, Keira hit Jak across the shoulder and said, "C'mon, Jak, let's go."

As Jak followed her, he passed Riku and said to him glumly, "It's not as fun as you think it sounds."

* * *

Later that night, after everyone had found a room to sleep in, Crash dreamt in his room. On the blowup mattress next to his bed slept the Lombax and hefty hippopotamus head-to-toe. All three snored loudly, which was not a problem for each. However, Crash tossed a little in his sleep from a nightmare, ruffling the covers.

Running through a dark forest, Crash breathed heavily, not looking behind him. He probably didn't look back because a sinister sounding voice laughed and bellowed, "I'm getting closer, CRASH!"

"No!" the bandicoot yelled back. Crash tripped over a green and yellow Wumpa fruit and landed on his face, skidding a bit. Something grabbed his leg and pulled him back. He clawed at the ground, screaming, "WHHHYYY?!"

The monster picked up the frightened marsupial and turned it around to face him. Crash was face-to-face with a giant orange and yellow Wumpa fruit monster, hanging from its green stem-like arms. With its menacing maw, it snarled, "I have you now, bandicoot!"

"Oh yeah?" Crash pulled out the green and yellow fruit he had previously tripped over. "Put me down, or I eat one of your little friends!"

The Wumpa monster rolled its beastly eyes. "Pft! Who cares, that Wumpa fruit's green!"

Crash gasped and accused, "You're a racist Wumpa!"

"Shaddup!" the monster replied shortly before hurling the bandicoot high into the air.

"AHHHH!" screamed Crash. He soared high enough to touch the moon; he gladly took a large bite out of it, only to realize that it was the sun he had chomped. As he fell back down into the sunlit landscape, he half expected to burn himself on the sun's chewy bites, only to taste something like that of Lays potato chips. After swallowing, he peered back down to see that the landscape had changed completely.

He was now freefalling down into what looked like a canyon; there were a few capsule-shaped houses scattered about the rocky area, and the sun had begun to set. As graceful as a feather, Crash landed on the canyon's cliff, which overlooked many of the houses below.

With his little legs dangling off the cliff, Crash realized that he was a young child again, and he was wearing weird clothes. He had on a straw tunic and green leather pants, which seemed a bit out of place for him. He looked back to see what was probably his own house in the distance.

What really caught his eye was the sight of a little girl about his young age. It wasn't Coco; this girl had long black hair and light colored skin. She had a black animal-like nose that indicated she was of a type of mammal. She skipped towards him, her straw skirt fluttering. The girl kindly sat next to Crash on the cliff with a warm smile, brightening up the young marsupial, too. Now that she was close enough for him to see her face, he almost thought he recognized who she was. Like him, she had large green eyes that reflected the setting sun's light.

In a familiar voice, she said, "I'm sorry they pick on you so much."

"Who?"

"Nathan and his friends."

"Who are they—?"

His world started swirling. "Don't be silly, you already know who they…"

His hearing became impaired and her face went blurry. Crash finally figured out the dream was ending; Ratchet and Murray's snoring is what impaired his hearing. He opened his eyes to find his dark room, not the sunlit canyon or the girl.

Glancing at the alarm clock, Crash saw that it was two sixteen in the morning. He decided to get up and carefully cross over the air mattress, making sure not to disturb his roommates. He walked out the door and down the stairs, running his hand along the banisters. Entering the kitchen, he accidentally kicked the dormant Clank, sending the lunchbox-sized robot across the wooden floor. Clank clanked up against the oven, making a loud metallic sound.

Despite kicking his friend, Crash continued to walk to the refrigerator without constraint. Opening it, he pulled out a pitcher of grape juice and unscrewed the top. Before drinking from it, he whispered to himself, "What was that place…and who was she…?"

"Hey, you!"

Crash whirled around, spilling some of the grape juice, to see his little sister standing in her pj's in front of the dinner table with a disgruntled expression. She chastised, "What the heck do you think you're doing?"

Crash replied, "Um, what's it look like?"

"Poor a glass, for Pete's sake!" Coco looked down. "I also see that you're still wearing my Hello Kitty boxers for some strange reason."

He let out a frustrated sigh, "Look, do you want these back or not?"

"No way! Keep 'em. You've probably been wearing them since the other night."

"Then shut UP about it!"

Coco rolled her eyes and asked, "What are you doing up, anyway?"

"I don't know," said Crash, looking to the side. "I had a weird dream."

Raising her eyebrows, Coco pried, "Like?"

"Well, first I was getting chased by a Wumpa monster—you know, nothing unusual. Then, the next thing I know I'm a kid again, sitting on the cliff of this canyon with all these strange houses below me. I'm wearing these weird clothes—and then this girl comes and sits next to me. She said something some people picking on me, and then it ends."

Puzzled, Coco pondered, "Really? A canyon and a girl? And you said you were a kid again? Do you remember anything like that when we were younger?"

"Coco, you know neither of us has any recollection of our younger days."

"Well, how old do you think you were?"

"I don't know…five or six, maybe."

"What did the girl look like?"

"She had black hair, big green eyes like me, and she was so…" Crash decided no to finish that sentence.

"…so what?" Coco pried again.

"MAN, am I tired!" Crash threw the grape juice pitcher back into the fridge and slammed the appliance.

As the bandicoot paced upstairs, Coco whisper-called after him, "Hey, you didn't finish! I wanna hear about this during future therapy sessions!" Coco smacked herself in the forehead in sudden realization. "Ah, darn it! The Vocabulizer! THAT'S what we forgot!"

* * *

_  
Now that our heroes have deftly returned home with merely inches of their lives, they now--you know what?? Just read the story. I can't make this anymore exciting or action-packed right now. So just read the--READ the flippin' story. I mean, it's not that difficult. Just enjoy it as it is. I'm serious. Turn away now if you can't--NO, scratch that. Just read the story. The humor should be able to pass you over until then, so just READ. Thank you._

_So anyways, the next installment of Twilight's Precursors details our heroes' discovery of the new Twisted Wipeout competition, and if you can't already tell, this arc will be a twist on the acclaimed Twisted Metal franchise AND the awesome Playstation exclusive titles known as WipEout. Calypso? Hover vehicles? One wish? Starting to sound familiar? So read the next chapter, **Sunshine, Fresh Air, and Jak**, because I told you to._


	35. Sunshine, Fresh Air, and Jak

_Hey, what's up? It's the beginning of the second arc of Twilight's Precursors, baby. You don't like to be called that? Well, maybe later, then..._

_So, if you have reviewed and/or added me or my story to your favorites or alerts, then you received a message about the sneak peak of this chapter I put on my own profile a long time ago. That's right. Others knew about it before hand. And you didn't. Because you haven't reviewed. Therefore I couldn't contact you. Jerk._

_Yeah, so I'm gonna let that sit with you for a minute._

_Unless you visited my profile on your own free will. Then thanks…_

_That sneak peak will still be there for one more week._

_Anyway, here are a few notes:_

_If Mario had a voice actor, I would totally choose Dave Willis. He is the voice actor for Carl in Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and Carl is just plain hilarious. He's also got a Brooklyn accent, so that helps!_

_There's a terribly explained explanation for why this came a week later on my profile page._

_Crash's new house is big, and the upstairs hallway is actually a landing that only overlooks the area in front of the front door. Remember: When looking at the front door, the living room is on the left side of the house, and the kitchen is on the right. Architecture, sucka!_

_Again, I'm sorry for the delay._

* * *

Chapter 35: Sunshine, Fresh Air, and Jak

Coco had gotten up early that morning and dressed herself in a white T and black jean shorts to prepare a low-budget breakfast for everyone while they slept. She walked over to the oven and bent over to fish out a frying pan from the lower drawer. As she came back up, she gasped and nearly dropped the metal pan on the floor at the startling sight of Jeycko sitting cross-legged on the adjacent counter.

The blonde haired Precursor gasped as well. Her breathing a little paced, Coco asked, "Je-Jeycko, when did you get here?"

"Oh, I've been waiting outside for the past three hours. I finally noticed that the window was open and let myself in…" Jeycko said casually. "Ah sweet, you makin ' eggs?"

"Um, yeah. Are you here for breakfast or for an actual reason?"

"It can't be both?" He received a sour look from the bandicootess. "Okay, okay. Well, it's about your next enemy. She's very dangerous. Tell you what; I'll come back later when everyone else is awake so I don't have to repeat myself."

"She?"

"Yep. See ya!" Jeycko vanished from the kitchen, unnecessarily lighting up the whole room.

Coco switched on the stove and mumbled under her breath, "Stupid Precursor. Thinks he can randomly appear in my house and then withhold information. Jerk move…Stupid refrigerator. Nearly empty. Stupid Vocabulizer. Not here. Stupid Crash. Still wearing my underwear…"

"What about underwear…?" said an enticed voice from behind her.

She whirled around to see Daxter lying on his side on the island counter with an alluring look on his furry face. With his hand supporting his head and the other in the pocket of his pants, he said, "You're lookin' cute this morning!"

"Um, thanks?" Coco said, trying to hide her embarrassment. "What are you doing up so early?"

"To see what you were up to. Also, that blinding light from a few seconds ago did the trick." The ottsel spun around to a sitting position, legs dangling off the counter's edge. "Among other things, you've got some pretty big eyes. Shiny, too."

"Hmm…it's interesting. My brain knows you're trying to hit on me, but it wants to hear more. Go on…"

"That, my dear," said Daxter with a confident grin, "is called the Spell of the Daxtinator! EVERY woman eventually falls under its contagious influence!" He winked as he said, "That's when they call the 'doctor'…"

Coco smiled and slowly set her hands down on either side of Daxter's spot on the counter. She leaned her head in close to the ottsel, evidently arousing him as his body shot upright. Coco said in a low tone, "You know something?"

Fighting back giddy giggles, Daxter replied, "What?"

"I heard…"

"You heard?" Daxter repeated in the same tone.

"That you have …"

"That I have…"

"…a girlfriend."

Daxter recoiled with a look as if he were suddenly punched in the face. He jumped back a little, sputtering, "Whoa—whoa—whoa! Where'd ya hear a ridiculous thing like that?"

Coco crossed her arms. "How about the time you were picking me to be on your kickball team, and you took the liberty to say that I looked like your girlfriend?"

Daxter's expression fell eight stories. "Ker-rap."

Meanwhile, Crash, Ratchet, and Murray were emerging from their room. Crash held out his arms to halt the yawning and stretching.

"Shh, shh!" he shushed. "You guys hear something?"

"Sounds like someone's already downstairs," Murray said, utilizing his advanced hearing.

"Sounds like some PEOPLE are already downstairs," Ratchet commented.

Crash suggested, "Maybe we shouldn't continue to speak at regular volumes that, for some reason, they can't hear."

All three of them hushed and sunk to the wall. Audibly, they could hear Coco laughing and saying, "You were SO trying to hit on me! I'm telling her all about it!"

"I'm not kidding! I wasn't doing anything like that! Really!" said Daxter's voice.

Crash commented, "That sounds like a funny situation. Well, time to break it up!" Crash screamed loud enough for everyone in the house to hear, "BOY, THAT WAS A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP! I SURE CAN'T WAIT TO GET DOWN THERE FOR SOME GOOD OLE BREAKFAST! MAN, I'M SO DANG HUNGRY! COCO? YOU DOWN THERE MAKIN' SOMETHING TO EAT? COCO? _COCO?"_

"YES, I FREAKIN' HEARD YOU!" Coco yelled back angrily.

"Thanks, Sis!" Crash replied. The bandicoot walked over to another door and pounded on it, obviously trying to wake up the room's inhabitants. He turned and said to Ratchet and Murray, "And that's that."

"Great, now let's go eat! Flippin' hungry, here," said Murray, bounding down the stairs with Crash following after.

Ratchet took a second to pause and say, "Trying to hit on her?" He shook the idea from his head and went down stairs.

Jak, wearing his ripped blue tunic and beige pants, Mario, still in his plumber uniform, and Sora, wearing a white T and his black shorts, emerged from the door Crash had previously pounded on. Mario, looking well rested and refreshed, said enthusiastically, "Man, I gotta get me an air mattress! They'a so comfortable. See you folks downstairs!" He waved to Jak and Sora and proceeded to practically skip down the steps.

"What's his problem?" Jak asked a little grumpily.

Before Sora could attempt a diagnosis, the door on the very end of the hall swung open. Jak said, "Look who's awake."

Keira and Kairi were standing and yawning in front of the room they had just exited from. The blue-haired one seemed to notice the boys on the other end of the hallway, as she called, "Hey, boys!"

The girls started walking over to Jak and Sora; now might be a good time to mention their apparel. Keira wore an even smaller white shirt and black (short) shorts; Kairi wore a reminiscent V-cut white tank and lavender (who likes short—?) shorts with Moogle slippers. (1)

Just before Kairi and Keira arrived, Jak quickly hit Sora in the shoulder with his elbow and whispered, "Don't stare. Stay cool…"

"Good morning, boys!" Keira greeted. "How'd you sleep last night?"

"Horribly," Jak replied, rubbing his neck. "That plumber guy kept pushing me off the air mattress."

Although she already knew the answer, Kairi asked, "How about you, Sora?"

Smiling like a child, he answered, "I got the bed!"

After some laughs, Jak said grouchily, "Well, you're not getting it again tonight. It's my turn to wake up in a good mood."

"Leave him alone, Jak. You never wake up in a good mood," said Keira. "Why don't you just sleep in my bed?"

"Then where will you sleep?" Jak asked.

Keira sighed and leaned in closer so Jak could hear correctly. "Let me try that again: Why don't you sleep in my bed tonight…?"

"I'm too tired for mind games, right…oh."

"I had no idea it was possible for Jak to blush," the red-haired one observed.

Satisfied, Keira smiled and said, "And that's one point for us."

"Huh?" said a confused Kairi.

"Point for what?" asked a confuzzled Sora.

Jak obviously understood, as he cursed under his breath, _"Shoot…"_

Suddenly, Donald's voice from one of the downstairs rooms yelled up to them, "WILL YOU FOUR STOP FLIRTING UP THERE?!"

Sly's voice also yelled up, "YEAH, LISTENING TO GUYS IS _PAINFUL!"_

"I had no idea we were that loud," Sora said sheepishly.

"YEAH, YOU ARE!" Bentley also screamed.

"C'mon, Kairi," said the blue-haired one. "Let's go see what's for breakfast."

One of the two still confused, the girls walked past the boys and down the nearby staircase. Sora turned to Jak with an interrogative look.

"Okay, what just happened?"

"Keira usually finds every way she can to seduce me," the long-eared man explained. "That's my only weakness. Now I'm trying to find ways to master it. Hey, I didn't know Kairi was in on it. Are you, too?"

"I'm not, and she isn't either!" exclaimed the brown-haired boy, a little offended. "That's you and Keira's sick little game, not ours."

Jak rose and eyebrow and asked, "What, you afraid she might win?"

"Yes. I'm gonna go eat, now!" Without another word, Sora turned and paced down the staircase, nearly tripping and falling in the process.

From the room opposite the girls' side of the hall, Riku emerged in his blue and white sleepwear. Staring at the distressful state of the boy's hair, Jak greeted him with, "Good morning, sunshine."

"Ahehehe," Riku fake laughed. "What was all the racket?"

Jak plainly answered as he began walking downstairs, "A lot of people yelling."

"Okaaaay…Hey, have you seen Link?"

Jak turned around to face the boy. "No. Why?"

"He's not in the room with me. Oh, well, he's probably out training or something. He took his gear with him."

* * *

Later that morning, everyone had been served egg and melted cheese sandwiches in the kitchen. Coco was coming back inside from retrieving the day's (and previous days') mail.

"Let's see," said Coco, reading the mail. "Bills…government threats…more threats…Hey, our Netflix movies! Also, Bandi-Body-Builders Magazine subscription renewal for Crunch…ointment prescription update for Crash…oh, did I read that out loud? Oh, look. Some schoolwork from a place called Destiny Island High School! Have fun guys!"

Annoyed groans and the sounds of heads slamming on counters resounded from two teenaged boys. Nonetheless, Daxter continued his story already in progress:

"Yeah, and then he was all like, 'I want to use my Dark Makers to destroy the world!' And I was all like, 'Man, just shut your cybernetic mouth! Jak and I can whoop you just like we did before.' And just like that, we blow him and his stupid giant walking spider-thingy sky-high! True story," said Daxter, retelling his and Jak's most resent epic battle. "And don't get me started with Metal Kor."

"That's funny," Riku said, observing something. "It sounds like all of our end battles involve a colossal enemy who either starts out huge or grows bigger during the battle. Hey Sora, remember Xemnas turned into a huge dragon thing? And Ansem turned into a giant vessel?"

With a look of sudden realization, Sora said, "Oh, yeah! Also, Ansem looked like he grew nine feet when I got close enough to him."

Sly Cooper also realized, "Hey, we had to fight the same giant, mechanical owl twice. Then some giant, mutated monster nearly killed me, so that was crazy."

"Well, Clank and I—"

"Actually, Ratchet," Clank interrupted with a finger in the air, "I think it best that I be the one to describe our past experiences. Well, Ratchet and I have encountered foes of many sizes, most of whom decided to man a giant mech-suit to try and defeat us. Why, a recent foe named Emperor Tachyon was as short as I, and he attacked us with a B2-Quake-Maker Mech-Suit."

"Mech-suits sound familiar," Coco said. Right after shooting pretend guns, she said pompously, "Maybe because I've fought and beat about a hundred of 'em!"

"Tch…" Crash uttered from across the kitchen, rolling his eyes.

"You say somethin', orange-glazed chicken?" Coco asked with an intense look.

"Yes sir, I did! Remember that 'birthday party' Cortex invited me to? I had to fight that giant robot all by myself while you were laying around, being zapped!"

"That probably wouldn't have happened if you could tell the difference between a man in a wig and your little sister!" Coco retaliated, sounding a little ticked. "Plus, I fight N. Gin's mech-suits all the time! It ain't that hard!"

Crash attacked, his voice rising, "Really, well it seems like I'm the one that does all the fighting in the first place! Whada YOU do? Oh, besides get zapped, trapped, brainwashed like three times, yell at me to get money and batteries, replace adult-themed characters, jet-ski around, get your hair done, and complain?" (2)

"SHUT UP!" Coco screamed. "I do a whole lot more than I'm recognized for! I'm getting so sick of that!"

Meanwhile, the others in the house's kitchen simply looked back and forth between the bandicoots like spectators at a tennis match. "This breaks my heart," Riku whispered to Bentley nonchalantly.

"There she goes with the complaining again!" Crash pointed out. "What about me? What about my womanish needs?"

Coco seemed to have had enough. She jumped up onto the breakfast table and took a martial arts stance, stepping on someone's egg sandwich in the process. "Ah, shut up and be a man!"

Crash also took a boxer's fighting stance. Looking up at the battle-ready marsupial, he cried, "YOU GOT IT!"

The bandicootess leapt down and attempted to dropkick him in the gut; Crash leapt up and attempted to right hook Coco across the face. Blue swooshy backgrounds accompanied each bandicoot, adding a somewhat dramatic effect.

Aku Aku cleared his throat and calmly said, "Not in front of our guests, children."

To everyone's amazement, both siblings halted their assaults in midair. After landing lightly on the floor, they scratched their own heads and sheepishly apologized, "Sorry, Aku."

Daxter commented out loud, "Whoa! Captain's Log: Fighter chicks are hot!"

Crash flexed his trapezius muscle and said, "Thanks, Dax! I _have_ been hitting the gym lately!"

"No, moron! I wasn't talking about—!"

"Speaking of the gym," Murray interrupted out of nowhere, "where can a hippo do some squats around here?"

"Crunch and I have a bunch of exercise equipment in our garage down by the lake," Crash answered, pointing out a nearby window. "Who's up for a workout? Just follow me!" He gestured for everyone to follow him and began walking out the door.

Immediately, Murray, Ratchet, Sly, Donald, Bentley, Daxter, Goofy, and Jak sprang up to follow the bandicoot, chattering all the way out the door. Sora and Riku did their best to be quiet as they edged closer and closer to the door. The mission was a failure; Kairi's hands had clasped onto the back of both boys' shirts, halting their escape.

"Not so fast!" she exclaimed.

"Ah, c'mon, Kairi!" Sora complained, still trying for the door. "Let us go!"

Although her grip remained constant, her slippers slowly slid her across the kitchen floor. Riku shouted, "Yeah, we wanna work out with the guys, too!"

In a strained voice, Kairi retaliated, "NOT WHEN THERE'S WORK TO BE DONE!"

Out of the blue, Jak poked his head back in the doorway. The long-eared teen scolded, "Hey! Quit messing around and get to work!"

"Sora and Riku were trying to escape!" Kairi tattled.

"Okay then. None of you are gonna join us until all homework is completed," Jak said, giving his justice-smirk. And just to tick the boys off, he added, "And I wanna check your papers when you're through."

Sora gave up trying to run away and drooped his shoulders in defeat, sighing. Riku, however, gave a pouty look and crossed his arms.

"Thanks, Jak," Kairi thanked, resting her arms.

Jak returned her thanks with a mere nod and disappeared out the door again.

Meanwhile, Crunch was man-handling Clank. He said, "What's good, little buddy? Crunch wants to know if you're compatible with iPods!"

"Unhand me, Mr. Crunch!" Clank demanded. "And I do not know what an iPod is or what it's used for!"

Crunch was obviously not paying the little robot any mind. "Hmm, I wonder what's in here…" The burly bandicoot opened Clank's gray abdominal vent. He stuck his hand in and pulled out a black cord.

"Be careful! That is used for supercomputer hacking and recharging only!" Clank protested loudly.

Bluntly, Crunch plugged the fixed end of the cord into his iPod's bottom outlet. He selected a song and immediately Clank's eyes started glowing and slowly changing to different colors while his arms and legs shifted into backpack mode. His frozen shiny metal head remained aloft with mouth agape; Crunch's music played through the speakers located in Clank's throat.

The bandicoot bobbed his head to the beat of his music, chanting, _"Just throw it in the bag! _Man, I love that song!" Holding the frozen robot under his arm, he jogged out the door toward the garage, whistling to the music.

Mario had been very silent throughout breakfast, but now, he had to speak up. "Yeah, uh, I'd like tah thank ya fah steppin' all ovah my egg sandwich," he said, miserably looking down at his squashed egg sandwich.

Coco began, "Oh, sorry—!"

"—And on that note, I'm gonna get back to work." Mario grumpily stood up from the breakfast table and walked past Keira to get back to work in the downstairs bathroom.

"He's great, isn't he?" Coco said sincerely, smiling.

On another subject, Aku Aku suggested, "Coco, why don't we get a head start on learning the mystical ways of Mojo? You'll know a lot more than Crash."

"Finally!" Coco veered around the kitchen table to make for the door, skipping along the way. However, when she came within three feet of the door's opened threshold, Jeycko reappeared right on the spot, knocking Coco aback onto the floor.

"Oops! My bad, Coco," Jeycko apologized, actually sounding a little hyped. "Quick—do you have access to the internet? It's about your new enemy!"

Sora, Riku, Kairi, Keira, and Aku Aku glanced down at Coco, who was just standing back up with a ticked expression. She answered with a rather rude tone, "What, do ya need to use my laptop?"

Seeming like he didn't notice her tone, the precursor replied in the same hyper tone of voice, "Yes, please!"

Coco strode over to the island counter to open up her pink MacBook laptop. She loaded Firefox and started an internet browser. The others had walked and/or floated over to her and gathered around the computer. "Where to?" she asked, sounding calmer.

"Never-Late News dot com, please."

Coco typed in the address, redirecting the webpage to a news site. There were many differently labeled tabs littered around the page's borders, and headlines were listed in numerous boxes going down the page. "What are we lookin' for, here?" Coco asked.

"Um…" Jeycko trailed, scanning every corner of the page. "Keep scrolling down the headlines until I find it. It'll say something about a racing competition in Europe."

"Racing competition?" Keira repeated out loud.

"What, was the bad guy spotted at one?" Riku asked.

"You'll figure out everything soon. Trust me," Jeycko assured.

Coco scrolled down the page and read the headlines out loud, "Let's see, we've got, 'Man Discovers Cure for Hunger', 'Twelve-Year-Old Who Beat Up Pacman Jr. to be Tried as Adult', 'Master Chief's Opinions on Don't Ask, Don't Tell Rule', 'Solid Metal Gear on Sale, Now!', 'Ghost Spartan Kratos Recently Voted Sexiest Man Alive', 'Master Chief's Second Opinions on Don't Ask, Don't Tell Rule', 'Banjo and Kazooie Drop Sabotage of Private Property Charges', 'Master Chief Goes Back to First Opinion on Don't Ask, Don't Tell Rule', 'Forza Sued by Turismo', 'Dante still Missing an Inferno', 'Proven: Planets Can be Little and Big at the Same Time', 'Wipeout Corp. Preparing for New Racing Events', 'Grave-Robber Nathan Drake Breaks up With Lara Croft'…"

"Wait, go back up to that one about Wipeout Corp.!" the Precursor of Twilight alerted.

Coco scrolled back up a little and clicked on the choice link. After redirecting the page to an article, Coco began reading out loud again, "'Yesterday, Timothy Biggs, head of British company Wipeout Corp., signed a deal with a shady newcomer relating to a new type of racing competition. Although not much is known about the founder of this idea, it is worth noting that she is a magical being named Arden Calypso who could've possibly lived hundreds of years ago. Biggs stated that this new televised competition would change Europe's way of entertainment and action. New and futuristic technology will be immediately implemented to meet the high profile standards of the race's founder, Calypso. New companies like Feisar'—blah, blah-blah, blah-blah. What, is this Calypso chick our next baddie?"

"Yeah," Jeycko responded, evilly eyeing the article's words. "The good thing is that she made herself public. We can track her down so much easier now."

"And maybe we can get her to tell us where all the other bad guys are," Kairi suggested.

"First thing's first, though," said Aku Aku. "We need to be ready for this one. We have no idea what she's capable of."

Keira was in deep thought. She asked Coco, "Hey, does it say any more details on that race?"

"Um," Coco said as she scrolled down the article. "Yeah—'Eight racers will be chosen from three preliminary rounds to compete in a World Championship Race. To enter preliminary rounds, contestants will be able to sign up via soon-to-be-erected kiosks around the world. After the eight elite racers are selected, one will come out the winner and obtain one free wish from the contest's creator, Calypso.' Sounds like they're leaving out a little information. That all you wanted, Keira?"

"Yeah…" Keira replied. "I was just thinking Jak might be interested in this."

"What are you getting at?" Sora asked, reflecting the same puzzled expression the others bore.

"Well, let's say our only option would be to join the race so we could face that Calypso. You know, kind of like an undercover thing until we know everything about her. I was just thinking Jak would be the man to step up to the challenge of racing. And maybe we could pass off as being his mechanics."

"That's actually not a horribly stupid idea," said Jeycko.

"Thanks—"

"—Only Reiden has seen you guys, right? Yeah, going undercover as racers is a great idea! Let's get Jak in here so we can _enlighten him."_

Keira looked off to the side and said lowly, "But someone's gotta go get him." She placed her index finger on her nose.

Coco was the first to notice what Keira was doing; the bandicootess slyly placed her finger on her own black animal nose. Aku Aku caught on, too. He bent a green feather around his head to touch his wooden nose.

Confused at first, Sora finally got the picture and lightly touched his nose; Jeycko followed suit with suppressed laughter. Meanwhile, Riku had been waiting for Keira to touch something else on her body. Snapping out of his trance, he made sure that he wasn't the last one to have his finger on (read: not in) his nose.

The silver-haired boy laughed and looked over to the confused girl standing next to him and said, "Bad luck, Kairi!"

"Huh? I don't get it. What happened?" Kairi asked, eyes widening.

Keira took a step towards the bewildered girl and placed a hand on her shoulder. Trying to sound thoughtful, Keira explained, "Um…can you go get Jak for us?" She smiled sheepishly.

Suddenly getting the picture, Kairi frowned and hissed, _"Bums."_

"Hey, c'mon, Kairi," said Coco. "We're like a frat house! And you're the scrub gettin' hazed!"

Sora added, "Yeah, and it's not that far of a walk down there."

"Then why don't you do it?" Kairi asked.

"Sorry, got homework to do…" said Sora as he and Riku turned their backs and walked towards the living room.

"Hmph." Kairi turned around and stalked past the dinner table and out the front door, arms crossed.

Coco observed, "Man, we are lazy…"

* * *

The morning sun shined brightly over the colorful isle, lighting up the grass and plants. As Kairi walked down a small hill, she could hear loud heavy metal music booming from the garage adjacent to the narrow land bridge connecting to a different part of the island. The music became deafening as she neared closer with every step, making her wonder why anyone would call it motivational music; she just hoped her head wouldn't explode by the time she found Jak (which is what the song suggested would happen).

However, when she peered around the left corner of the garage, she felt a certain unnamable part of her brain enter heaven.

Starting from the far right of the garage-gym, Murray was squatting a forty-five pound bar with two sixty-pound weights on each side, totaling around two hundred eighty-five pounds. He had an intense expression that matched the booming music, and his calf and thigh muscles bulged out (which was a little weird because he wears no pants…).

Going left, Bentley was doing pull-ups on a bar bolted to the wall. What was unusual was the fact that his shell laid hollow on the floor beneath him; without his shell, strong and toned upper body muscles were visible as he repeatedly pulled up his weight and let himself back down. He still wore his thick glasses, which, combined with his scary physical appearance, looked like something out of Revenge of the Nerds.

Still going left, Crunch could be seen doing curl-ups with a forty-five pound bar plus one hundred forty pounds on each side (think of two sixty pounders and a twenty on each side), which was a little more than Murray's squatting strength. Chiseled upper body muscles rippled from his pectorals to his biceps with each curl-up.

Next to him were two leg workout machines, one of which Sly Cooper was working out on; he was leaning back on an incline, pushing up at least one hundred and forty pounds on the leg press. The raccoon utilizes his speed, so it made sense that his quads and hamstrings were well-toned and in top shape. On the other leg press, Crash was doing the same routine as the raccoon, but his machine forced him to push up the weights in an upside-down position. Crash held on to a couple of handles to keep himself from hitting the floor, which in turn worked out his abdominals.

On the floor beside Crash, Clank's frozen, music-making body was planted motionlessly by Ratchet's feet; the Lombax from Solona was power-cleaning one hundred seventy pounds. With perfect form, he heaved the heavy bar upwards and rolled his wrists under his chin, dipping his hips in the process.

Reaching closer to Kairi's position, Goofy exercised with dumbbells. The court knight slowly punched the air with twenty-five pound weights in each hand, working out his shield-wielding arms. He had stripped down to his green vest to allow his skin to breathe under the thin layer of black fur. His dog ears wagged back and forth with every strike to the air he made.

Meanwhile, Donald Duck was using a dated Bowflex machine that consisted of a lot of arm workouts. It was one of those complicated types where the user would sit and pull down a bar from above, which activated a series of pulleys beneath him. As the royal magician pulled down, two bendable batons would suddenly bend outward, making the whole contraption seem like a whacked-out crossbow. Being Donald, however, he pulled the bar too far down and the chair went into eject mode, launching the bird into the ceiling.

And on the very end of the garage near the corner Kairi was watching from, Jak was on the bench-press; his ottsel friend stood on his muscular midsection, spotting him with great attentiveness.

Over the loud music, Daxter shouted, "C'mon, Jak! Three more reps!"

Shirtless, Jak benched the two hundred fifty-five pounds with burning strain, growling, _"Grrrrrrrrrr…"_

"Two more, old buddy-ole pal!" Daxter reminded, cheering him on.

Pushing up, Jak said with irritation, "This would probably be easier…if you weren't standing on me!"

"Hey! I'm doin' you a favor, here! It builds _character. _One more, Jak, you can do it!"

The weights rattled a little as Jak let the bar down to complete one more rep. With all the effort he could exert, he pushed the two hundred fifty-five pound bar up to the full extent of his arms.

"Good work, Jak!" Daxter cheered, doing very little to help the man rack the bar.

Jak sat up on the bench and rested his arms, breathing heavily. Wiping sweat from his forehead, he asked, "How 'bout a break?"

"Good idea," replied the ottsel. "Break-time, everybody!"

Crunch, Murray, and Ratchet set down their bars; Bentley jumped down into his wheelchair and picked up his shell; Crash and Sly both slid out from under the leg presses, sitting down to rest their quads; Goofy put his dumbbells on the nearby rack. Looking up, he noticed Donald was still stuck in the ceiling. He jumped up and grabbed one of the magician's feet and pulled him down.

Donald coughed up some dry wall and said, "Doing that a little sooner would've been helpful, too."

Crunch said energetically, "Whew! Now that was a workout!" He suggested, "C'mon, let's go explore the island a little!"

"Right behind 'ja!" said Murray, following Crunch out the garage.

"That sounds fun!" Goofy thought out loud. "You comin', Donald?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure," Donald agreed. "It's better than doing homework!"

Crash popped his neck and said enthusiastically, "Yeah, let's go Crunch! It's a lot better than doing homework!"

Sly turned and gave the bandicoot a weird look. He said lowly, "Actually, Donald just made that joke."

"Oh…Man, I got nothin'."

Bentley slipped into his shell and declined, "Actually guys, nature hikes aren't my thing. I'll just head back to the house."

"Right behind ya, Bentley," said Ratchet. "I'll catch up with you guys later on."

As everyone began dispersing, Daxter started following after Crunch and called back, "C'mon, Jak! Let's do some romping!"

Kairi decided to come out from her partially hidden location. She said, "Actually, I need to tell Jak something."

"I guess I'll catch up later," Jak replied to Daxter. After everyone went off to explore, Jak stood up from the bench and walked over to Clank. Kneeling, he bopped the bot's springy head, activating the pause function. The _Nine Inch Nails_ song stopped booming throughout island.

Jak turned back around to Kairi and asked with his hands on his hips, "So what is it?"

"…What is what?"

"What you needed to tell me…?"

"Oh, right. Jeycko just…um…"

"Jeycko what?"

"Yeah, he…um…"

"He what?"

Kairi couldn't think straight. What had she been sent down there to do? All she could focus on was Jak. Every once in a while her eyes would accidentally sweep his body. The way he stood in front of her with his hands on his hips made her mind go blank.

Jak snapped his fingers and asked in a robotically clear tone, "What. Do. You. Need. To. Tell. Me?"

"Sorry…" Kairi cleared her head, but to no avail. "Well, we just…discovered…something…"

Her eyes decided it was time to sweep again. No, she didn't want to be solely focused on his pectorals, six pack, triceps, delts, trapezius, and biceps. Not at all.

Frustrated, Jak yelled, "Kairi! SPIT IT OUT!"

The girl retaliated, "Maybe if you put on a shirt, I'd be able to!"

Suddenly, Jak's look of frustration turned into a tight smirk. He quietly grabbed the muscle shirt hanging on the bench and slipped it on, which didn't really cover up much. He sat down on the bench with both elbows resting on the bench rack behind him; retaining the same smirk, he stated, "Looks like I tied the score. Now, what is it?"

Kairi gave up and decided to turn around and face the giant broken machinery laid out on the island. That was better. "Jeycko came by again and showed us this website. It leads to our next enemy."

"And why am I being specially consulted?" Jak asked with an attitude, reclining a little on the bench.

Still not facing him, Kairi crossed her arms and said tetchily, "Because it involves _racing!"_

"Now I see…I guess Keira wants me to check it out, right?" Jak concluded. "What, is there like a competition, or something?"

The princess turned back around and snapped, "Maybe if you got off your lazy butt and came to see, you would know!"

Jak stood up from the bench and imitated a sizzling noise with his mouth. "Man, are you normally this cranky?"

"Just come on, I'm missing out on my homework! And what do you mean you 'tied the score'?"

Jak walked out the garage, past Kairi without responding to her question. Kairi watched him as he walked off in the Bandicoot Home's direction, not saying a word.

She yelled, "Hey! I asked you _a question!"_

Further up the hill, Jak yelled without looking back, "Maybe if you got off your scrawny ass, you'd know!"

No one had ever spoken to her like THAT before. Speechless, she ran after him, trying to think of something to comeback with. "What's he mean, scrawny?" she angrily muttered under her breath.

* * *

_(1) But Mister Hybrid, what the f%# is a Moogle?_

_Yeah, that's some sort of weird teddy bear species in them Final Fantasy games. You really don't need to know…_

_(2) But Mister Hybrid, I read a review that stated Evil Crash was first seen in Crash: Warped, not Twinsanity!_

_Wait, was that the one about him being seen dancing on Coco's jet-ski level? That was Fake Crash, not Evil. So in your tater tots, firespin97-Devilish Desperado._

_On to the next one, I say._

_Friends and family wonder about their heroes off at battle. Some weep about disappearances, and others are nervous about filling in political positions while a deserving man has passed. Some friends search on a false trail for their supposedly "kidnapped" hero, whilst others roam the streets, lost in their thoughts, and friends simply play Rock Band, unworried about much of anything. Catch the drama in the next chapter, "Back Home"!_


	36. Back Home

Chapter 36: Back Home

Buru Village, Madam Saoki's tent…

"I'm going to ask you one more time, WHERE IS SLY COOPER?" Inspector Carmelita Fox demanded loudly. Next to her feet was the twitchy, smoky, and electrocuted body of Matthew Mcconaughey. Her favorite red shock blaster was clutched in her right hand, threatening to pull the trigger on someone else.

Madam Saoki looked confused as she replied, "You mean you're not here to find Reiden's body?"

"For the last time, no! I am here to rescue a raccoon who was kidnapped four days ago in Paris, France. I got Intel that says he was last seen in this mountain valley area. _Have_ _you seen him?"_

"Hmm, a raccoon you say?" the elderly woman thought out loud. Jem stood next to her inside the tent, and he obviously knew who Carmelita was talking about.

"Um, Madam? I do believe she's talking about—"

"—Hush, Jem. Do not speak while I'm thinking. Otherwise, I won't be able to think, now will I?" Madam Saoki continued to ponder out loud. "Hmm…oh yes! He was with a turtle and hippopotamus."

Now they were getting somewhere. Carmelita exclaimed excitedly, "RIGHT, YES! Where were they headed?"

"I believe they were going to a place called…hmm, a place called…"

"A placed called?" Carmelita rushed.

"What was it? Oh yes, it was a place called Wimpa Island. Yes, that's what it was. Wimpa Island."

Having her proper facts, the inspector thanked them as she scurried out the tent, back to her helicopter, "Thank you! You've been a great help!"

Once again, Jem put in his two cents, "Um, Madam Saoki? I believe they were headed to a Wumpa Island, not Wimpa Island."

The elder turned her back on him and smiled. She said with closed eyes, "I know. That heroic raccoon has a lot on his plate, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't need that crazy broad on his tail. You just have to learn to sense these things, Jem."

* * *

Ordon Spring near Ordon Village…

"I had another dream about him," Ilia confessed to Colin and Beth. "I…I think he's still alive."

"I sure hope so," said Colin, a short blonde boy. "It's just been too quiet without him."

"I hate just sitting here," Beth griped. She was also a young child around Colin's age. "What if he's in trouble? What if he needs us?"

Colin held up his metal Ordon Sword and nobly said, "Then we'll go and rescue him."

Ilia looked up into the twilit sky, contemplating where Link might have been stolen to. "Where ever he is, I hope he comes home."

Suddenly, voices from the village's direction called to them: "Ilia! Are you over here?" "Beth, Colin, Ilia, we've gotta tell you something!"

All three stood up to see who was calling them. From the spring's entrance, brothers Malo and Talo entered, both out of breath. The older of the two, Talo, tried explaining, "Guys—it's the mayor! He just got a—!"

"Shut up, Talo. You can't explain things right!" Malo ordered.

"But you didn't even let me finish my sent—!"

"Mayor Bo just received a letter from Princess Zelda!" Malo continued. "He said it's about Link's disappearance."

"What?" Colin exclaimed.

"No way! Do they know where he is?" Beth asked anxiously.

Malo didn't answer her question. Instead, he threw his short arms up and hastily said, "C'mon, what are you waiting for? The mayor's reading the letter to the town right now!"

Beth and Colin immediately jumped up and chased after Malo out of the spring. Talo mumbled under his breath, "I coulda said that…Hey, Ilia? You comin'?"

"Oh, uh, yes! Let's go," she replied before running after Talo to Ordon Village.

Back in the village, the whole town had gathered around the mayor, who stood on a wooden box. "Quiet down, people, if you want to be able to hear!" Bo announced. "Oh look—my daughter has arrived with those other children! Now I may begin the reading of this letter…which was delivered to me by a troop from Princess Zelda's castle. This letter says…things that pertain to the condition of our hero, Link. I shall read this…as soon as I open this envelope." The mayor opened the envelope and removed the letter. "This letter reads…as the following…"

Beth's mother, Sera, shouted from the crowd, "JUST GET ON WITH IT!"

Clearing his throat, Bo continued, "Yes, yes, of course. 'Dear villagers of Ordon, I know these past few days have been unsettling due to the abrupt disappearance of local Hero of Hyrule, Link, but I have just come in contact with another one of the beings who were responsible for his kidnapping. It turns out that Link has willfully joined a small battalion of intergalactic heroes who seek to destroy the same threat that recently nearly wiped out the Twilight Realm. His name is Orphco, and he is a member of the Twili race. He has apologized for any misunderstandings that have occurred between now and when Link was kidnapped. Apparently, Link's skills in combat were needed in their desperate struggle against five notorious villains, one of whom has already been defeated by the assembled battalion. Orphco assures us that Link is alive and healthy and will soon be battling the next enemy. Soon, he will be home. But until then, we must keep him in our prayers. May the goddesses watch over him. Princess Zelda'. Well that was well written."

"So, he's alive!" Renado, a shaman man from a nearby (desolate) village exclaimed.

"Yeah, I knew he was alive!" yelled Fado, the village's ranch owner. "He's got so many goats to herd…"

Applause rang from the rest of the villagers, and their minds were put at ease, for now.

* * *

On the busy streets of Metropolis (yes, it has streets) Qwark and his pet monkey/best friend Skrunch were taking a leisurely stroll. The muscular man complained, "But I should have been their first choice! It doesn't get more heroic than the green spandex!"

"Hoo-hoo, ha, ha-ha, hoo-hoo!" Skrunch replied.

"But I'm getting really tired of doing those lame Frosted Sugar Bites commercials. I'd rather do something more productive—SEE? The author's ending our segment early, now!"

* * *

New Haven, Haven City…

Torn stood on the highest floor of New Haven's HQ tower. Out the window, he stared at the construction of the city's new palace. There, the Council and other governmental officials would have their senatorial meetings, instead of just having one ruler living there.

Ashelin, the old Baron's daughter, entered the room from the elevator behind him. She walked next to Torn and leaned an elbow on his shoulder. "How's it goin'?" she asked earnestly.

"Havin' a blast," Torn answered drearily. "Organizing the reconstruction of the destroyed part of the city is really fun. Signing papers for more orders of Eco is entertaining. And let's not forget about the forever-bickering Council. I don't know how Praxis or Damas did it, but this is too much stress for me."

"I don't wanna hear that kind of talk, soldier," Ashelin cooed with a smile. "You were born to lead. It's just what you're naturally good at."

"All those other times were different. Those were times of war."

"And THAT wasn't as stressful?"

"Nowhere near. Damas could've led this city better than I am, no doubt. Maybe Jak can even lead better than me…"

Ashelin raised an eyebrow. "Really? I mean, he _is _the son of Damas. I bet he's got a few good leadership skills."

"You're a great help," Torn said sarcastically.

"Hey, chin-up. He's probably leading those other heroes into beating whatever bad-guys they need to beat right now. Here in Haven City, we need YOU to lead us."

Torn gave a grin and put his arm around her. "Thanks, babe."

* * *

Kairi's father grabbed the metal bat out of a nearby flower pot. He was hearing music come from his basement, but no one else was supposed to be home. He slowly went down the spiral staircase, calling down, "I know you're down there, so come out and show yourself, you scoundrels!" He poked his head below to spot three people playing his daughter's Rock Band game.

A little too suddenly, Tidus stood up from the drum set and hollered, "Oh, how's it goin' Mister—!"

"HURAH!" the mayor cried; he swung the bat at Tidus and smashed the electronic drum set.

Tidus had moved out of the way just in time to fall on the ground. "Whoa, Mister Mayor! It's just us! _Holy—!"_ The boy was forced to evade yet another strike from the mayor's wrath.

Selphie dropped her guitar and screamed, "Mister Mayor! It's just Kairi's friends! You're trying to kill Tidus! TIDUS, LOOK OUT!"

Another strike was headed straight for the side of the boy's head; Tidus closed his eyes and braced himself. Luckily, the swing stopped short, and no pain was inflicted.

The mayor must've finally realized who the three break-ins were, because he lowered the bat, smiled, and greeted, "Oh, hello Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka! How'd you guys get in my house?"

"We let ourselves in," Selphie briefly explained.

Meanwhile, Wakka rapped to the lyrics of _Give it Away_ by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. _"Give-it-away, give-it-away, give-it-away, now! Give-it-away, give-it-away, give-it-away, now! Give-it-away, give-it-away, give-it-away, now!"_

"Wakka!" Selphie shouted.

"_I CAN'T TELL IF I'M A KINGPIN OR A PAUPER!"_

Selphie continued, "Well anyway, we're gonna head home now. We've got homework to do."

Before they left, the mayor apologized, "Sorry about the shake up, Tidus."

"Yeah, sure…you dang near killed me!" Tidus shouted.

* * *

In one of Wumpa City's many nightclubs, a crime boss named Slug would usually hold meetings in the late afternoon, right before the joint opened up. He was, as you may have guessed, a slug. He was a heavy-set mollusk, who typically enjoyed wearing gray suits to match his gangster lifestyle. He sat in a dark corner booth of the club, with two crocodile body guards leaning on either side of the table. Their attire was similar to that of Slug's, save they wore black suits instead.

Finally, after a few minutes of waiting, he and his crew heard the sounds of motorcycles buzzing closer and closer to the nightclub. A look of delight spread across his lime-green face as he heard the motorcycles parking outside. It was none other than Louie and his gang who walked through the nightclub's doors.

With much enthusiasm, Slug stood up from the booth and called over to the hippopotamus, "Louie, my boy! How's it goin'?"

Vince, Carter, and Myles watched Louie and Slug exchange a man-hug, handshakes, and other manly salutations. Instead of being happy to meet up with their crime boss, the other three members of the biker gang seemed to have an apprehensive air about them.

Apparently, Louie did as well because Slug must've noticed. The crime lord interrogated, "Hey, what's up the long mugs? I'd think you guys would be happy to see your boss back in Wumpa City."

"Well…" Louie began, "Somethin' got seriously screwed up while you were away."

Slug began to look a bit serious. "What? What happened? What did Myles do?"

"Um…" Louie looked from side to side, seeing a loophole.

"No way!" Myles shouted. "You better not blame this mess on me!"

"Shaddup—!"

Vince, the kangaroo, cut Louie off, "We lost the old biker's club up in the slums."

"What?" Slug gasped. "What—what do you mean you lost it?"

Carter, the chipmunk, volunteered this time, "Louie lost a bet to that one fool named Crunch. They beat him in a race and got ownership of the bar."

Myles, the coyote, looked at his nails and said, "I told them to bet the girl…"

Slug stared at Louie disappointedly. In an angry tone, he asked, "Is this true? Did you lose part of my territory to that punk?"

"Yes, sir," Louie admitted. "But it wasn't Crunch I raced! It was this orange freak!"

"Wait, what orange freak?"

"Crunch brought along a couple of friends," the hippo gangster explained. "One of them was a bandicoot named Crash, and he was a total idiot—"

"—Man was a loon—" Vince interjected.

"—all I need to do is meet him there again, and this time, I'll beat him!" Louie continued. "He won't even know what hit him!"

Slug sighed, trying to take control of his frustration. "First day I'm back in town, and this—listen Louie! I'm getting tired of your reckless mistakes!"

Louie began to look desperate. "But, boss! It was just one small slip up—"

"No, you've been making poor decisions for a long time now. It's only from pure luck that you haven't lost or screwed anything else up!" The crime boss turned his back on the hippo and looked down. "You really aren't fit to be a leader in my syndicate."

"Please, just give me another chance—!"

"I'm going to have to demote you just to prove that even a total idiot can lead better than you. Myles, you are now the gang's new leader."

Vince and Carter both screamed, "WHAT?"

The coyote's eyes lit up. He shrieked, "AH, SWEET!"

"Wh—Wha—What?" Louie sputtered. "You can't do this!"

Still not facing him, Slug simply said, "Just did."

On the verge of swearing, Louie shouted, "Well, in that case, I QUIT! I'm outta here!" The enraged hippopotamus turned on his heel and stormed out the nightclub's doors. Before taking off on his motorbike, he yelled back, "FORGET YOU AND YOUR STINKIN' _SYNDICATE!"_

Slug only grunted, "Hmph."

Meanwhile, Myles was dancing something Daxter-related. In the midst of the groovy dancing, he stopped and realized something. "Wait…Slug just called me a total idiot!"

The little chipmunk sighed heavily and contemplated actually taking orders from _that guy_. Carter said glumly, "I can't believe I'll actually be taking orders from _this guy_."

_

* * *

_

_You're up, Aku Aku!_

Aku Aku: No problem.

Horace "Slug" Tiller

**Age:** 35

**Gender:** Male  
**Species:** Slug (Unclear of what kind)

The notorious crime lord of Wumpa Island, Slug runs and controls his underground crime syndicate. He gives orders to many smaller gangs, like Louie's, and gets revenue circulating throughout the crime underworld. From his traumatic childhood to his high-riding adult life, Horace has always displayed a cold and heartless attitude whenever someone fails him by completely shunning them out of his business and social life. Either that or he has them whacked. Slug's main hideout is a night club called the "Sweet Spot." This malevolent mollusk is an O.C. of _CadeXHybrid._

_Thanks. I'll be lessening the swearing in this arc. It's all Reiden's fault, he cursed too much._

_Myles gas been appointed the new leader of Louie's biker gang and that can only mean disaster. Meanwhile, Carmelita is investigating a false trail, but what will happen when she switches the "I" in Wimpa to a "U"?_

_On the next chapter, Crash and Coco are tutored by Aku Aku to learn the secrets of Mojo. Yeah—so get ready for a lot of useless explanations for garbage not even I care about. Just kidding, it's really important for them to understand if they ever intend on beating Draksin and his ensemble. Also, a young man in a green tunic is spotted on Wumpa Island. Fascinating! Don't miss the next chapter, "Mojo Flow and a Missing Link."_

_Wait…dang it. I just realized I also deleted the Word files for Uka's Uka's Revenge. GOTTA START OVER NOW…_ (CURSES PROFOUNDLY.)


	37. Mojo Flow and a Missing Link

Chapter 37: Mojo Flow and a Missing Link

Bentley aimed to get things cleared up. "So, what you guys want to do is actually compete in the huge deadly race?"

"Yes, sir!" replied Keira bouncily.

"And you want me to help you cheat your way to the championships, right?"

"You got that right," said Jak with a smirk.

After giving the teens a hard look, he complied, "Sure, I'm game. I guess you already know that this wouldn't be my first time doing this kind of dirty work."

"Which is why this'll be easy for you," Keira laughed.

Almost nonchalantly, the tortoise replied, "Alright, cool. What kind of sweet cars does this racing competition sport?"

"Let's look on the website," Jak said, opening the link on Coco's laptop. "It's gonna show a slideshow, or something."

The first vehicle to be shown off in a flashy style was a blue airship sponsored by the name "Feisar."

"That car looks cool!" said Keira, observing the slideshow. "Hey, this one looks like a Haven City Zoomer."

"Yeah, those clunky ones," Jak agreed, also observing the slideshow. As it changed to an orange vehicle sponsored by Harimau, he commented, "Nice, that one looks fast."

"Please, our old Zoomer looks faster than that!" opposed Keira.

"And you would know?"

"Of course. Check out the aerodynamics."

"Well, this next one looks like it has power," said Jak, eyes lighting up at the Assegai.

"What, to power a light bulb?" Keira opposed again.

The Keybladers had been listening to their scheming for the past hour and a half, obviously a little distracted from their homework. They were working in the living room, on the coffee table, and Jak, Bentley, and Keira's conversation carried all the way from the kitchen.

"C'mon, we need to focus on our chemistry," said Kairi, smiling noticeably. "Now, what's that word for something that speeds up a reaction, again?"

"Catalyst," Sora answered plainly.

"Thanks, Sora," she replied writing the word down in a blank.

Sora asked, "How come you're in such a good mood?"

"No reason. C'mon, let's get to the next question!" Kairi rushed, hiding an almost evil smirk.

Riku joked, "Man, I wish we had a catalyst to speed up all this boring homework." He snapped his fingers and sarcastically cheered, "Hey, I learned something! Cuz knowledge is power!"

* * *

Outside the Bandicoot Home, Crash and Coco were sparring as they awaited Aku Aku's arrival. They threw slow punches and kicks to easily dodge and counter.

"I wonder what kinda stuff Mojo can let us do," pondered Coco, blocking Crash's fist with both forearms.

"Probably cool stuff, like fly and shoot fireballs," Crash countered a side-kick with a kick of his own.

"That sounds cool," Coco chopped at Crash's neck; he blocked it with the back of his hand.

"Yeah, like another fighting technique."

Crash and Coco ended their spar when the witchdoctor mask floated out the house to join them. "Hey, there, bandicoots! Today, we'll learn how to focus and channel our Mojo.

"First, we'll learn where this Mojo comes from. It is the essence of all life on Earth. It comes from the trees, the birds, the fish, and even you. Every living thing is a spawn of Mojo, and when they die, the Mojo from those organisms return to the Earth—"

Coco interrupted, "Yeah, yeah, I've played Final Daydream VII before. I know how the story goes, 'The life blood returns to the planet,' and all that junk. So go on."

"Ahem, right. So it is possible to absorb this precious substance, which floats all around us. What's important is how we channel it and use it. Watch me…"

Aku Aku closed his eyes and began concentrating very hard. From the nearby bushes on the side of the house, glowing blue chunks of light erupted and floated to the mask like a magnet. Even small glowing pellets emitted from the grass below. They were all absorbed into him, and he reopened his eyes. "See, children?"

Coco answered, "Yeah, but Crash and I have absorbed Mojo a bunch of times before."

Crash added, "Except we normally have to rip and kill plants to do it. Our bad, plants."

"You see, this way is much more forgiving on the plants," Aku Aku educated. "They are able to stay alive and collect Mojo again. Now, I'm going to do the same thing, except a bit differently this time."

Aku Aku closed his eyes again, and for a long moment, he kept them closed while seemingly nothing happened. After reopening them, he asked, "Did you notice anything?"

"No, not really," said Crash, scratching his head.

Coco, on the other hand, felt something different. "I think I did."

"What did you notice?" Crash asked.

"Well, even though I didn't see any Mojo moving around, I still felt it moving, you know?"

"Good, Coco." Aku Aku explained, "What you felt was small molecular-sized bits of Mojo flowing all around you. Skilled users of Mojo can easily manipulate this molecular flow so that it goes unseen by anyone else. Also, absorbing Mojo this way is better for absorbing in more quantities. As the Mojo was absorbed by me, you probably felt its current rushing past you. That would be called the Mojo Flow. This Flow can help you determine which way a large source of Mojo is located. And by source of Mojo, I mean a person such as I, who can absorb or utilize it."

Coco realized, "Oh, so that one thing I felt in my sleep that one night in the Buru mountain valley was actually the Flow of Mojo from all the trees and stuff, right?"

"Correct."

Crash asked, "Are you sure that wasn't my foot? I do remember kicking you, sometimes on purpose."

"No, Crash, that was a real Mojo Flow that we felt. It wasn't pretty either. Coco and I could feel the negativity in that Mojo Flow and it was deeply disturbing."

"How come I can't feel these flows?" Crash asked.

Aku Aku answered, "Well, she and I meditate a lot more than you do, so we're more in touch with nature and our surroundings, which probably means you'll have more trouble absorbing Mojo on your own free will. Coco, why don't you try to demonstrate absorbing some Mojo from the grass?"

"Uh, I really have no idea how," said Coco.

"As you meditate, ask the Earth to lend you some energy. Don't worry; it's got enough to go around. Then, you should naturally breathe in the Mojo like fresh air," Aku instructed.

"Okay, sure," Coco replied, grasping some idea of what to do.

She closed her eyes entered a mode of meditation. As when she usually did, she could feel the presence of white and blue masses of energy surrounding her where the plants and grass would reside. Up to now, she had never actually thought about utilizing these little clouds for her own gain.

_Now all I've got to do is ask, _she thought to herself. _Okay, Earth, let me at some of that power…_After a moment, nothing happened.

"Hmm…" Aku hummed. "I don't think you asked nice enough."

Coco opened her eyes. "What? Are you serious? I have to use _manners_ with the Earth?"

Her livid response made Crash laugh out loud as Aku answered, "Yep. It is the Earth we're talking about, here."

"Okay…"

Coco went into meditation again, mentally seeing the bluish clouds around her once more. She tried again, _Hey again, Earth, can you lend me some of your gracious power, please? I'll give it back one day when I'm dead._

Immediately, the clouds started dancing like flames, signifying that they were ready to give power. As Coco naturally breathed on her own, she noticed that the masses of Mojo were now leaving their posts to enter her body.

In the outside world, Crash observed the phenomenon with amazement. White and blue masses of Mojo exited nearby plants and trees from all around and entered Coco as she meditated. "Whoa, cool Coco! You're actually doing what Aku Aku did!"

Back in meditation, Coco noticed that as she tensed her body, she could attract more Mojo from farther and a bit faster. She decided not to dillydally with that new discovery and came out of her meditation. She felt the noticeable surge of energy flowing through her.

"Whoa…" Coco said, looking at her hands.

"Nicely done," said Aku Aku. "Now, you've got the hang of it!"

"Meh, good for you." Crash crossed his arms, feeling left out.

"Now, there is one more thing I'd like to talk about," the witchdoctor mask continued. "Whenever you properly asked the Earth for Mojo, it willingly lent it to you. This transfer of energy has been given many names, but the most known name is Good Mojo.

"Those with hearts clouded in evil usually have the will to take Mojo from the Earth without asking. This turns the Mojo red and tainted. This, of course, would be called Bad Mojo."

Crash questioned, "Hold on, I remember Reiden charging a huge purple blast, not red." Crash summoned a thought bubble, which showed an image of him levitating over the immense blast with the dragon underneath it. The blast was indeed a light shade of purple.

"Well, Crash, the color of most manifestations of Mojo is purely determined by one's nature. Yours and Coco's would most likely be blue."

Coco asked, "So, what about that Mojo Flow we felt in Buru? Do ya think it was Reiden's?"

The floating mask thought a little before saying, "I do believe there was an even higher evil than Reiden that night. Whoever he was, he attracted an insane amount of Bad Mojo inside him. That much energy should've been enough to exterminate everyone in the mountain valley."

"That would've stunk," said Crash.

"No kidding. Just imagine, all of us wiped out in a second. Well, that concludes our lessons for today, children. I'll go find Crunch. Coco, can you stay here with Crash and teach him how to meditate?"

* * *

Link had lost count of how many times he had yawned in the past hour. It seemed the afternoon had just arrived; the sun was high above the island, maybe at a slight angle. The Hero of Hyrule had chosen to get up early that morning (maybe a little before Crash woke up from his prophetic dream) to go out and train in the woods. After a few good sessions of bow and arrow target practice, he continued on to hone his swordsmanship skills with a few trees. When all of that was done, he climbed to the top of the waterfall that poured into the lake nearest the Bandicoot Home (the bathing lake). There, at the top of the rock formation that overlooked the house, Link relaxed, laying flat on the rocks with his fingers linked behind his head.

After one last yawn, Link's eyes finally drifted to sleep. He lay perfectly still; he had changed his attire to better fit the comfortable state he was in. He had removed his white undershirt and chainmail armor and placed them next to his shield and sword on a different rock. All he wore was his green tunic, white pants, and boots. His bandages from yesterday's battle could be seen from under the tunic, lining his midsection and right shoulder.

Although he was thought to be asleep, the resting warrior said aloud, "Show yourself, I can hear you."

With his eyes still closed, a familiar voice said back to him, "And I heard you!"

"What do you mean?" Link asked.

"You're loud yawning. I kept hearing you on my way from the 'fancy outdoor bathrooms'."

Link opened his eyes and tilted his head to see her standing at the edge of the waterfall's rocky ridge. "Please forgive me; I was only up here napping."

Kairi laughed, skipping over a few rocks, "I figured that much. Why did you decide to go missing today?"

Link stood up and removed his gloves and arm pads, dropping them on the ground. "I need to get stronger, so I spent the whole morning training," Link answered blankly.

She skipped over in front of the warrior. With a look of somewhat concern, she commented, "Hey, you haven't been yourself since the battle. Is something wrong?" Link looked and walked past her to the edge of the rocky hill that overlooked the rest of the jungle. Kairi followed.

"It was just a terrifying experience, being crushed like that," the Hylian confessed. "When Reiden had me trapped in his hand, I felt every bone in my body snap. I couldn't move when I hit the ground. I knew I was going to die of internal bleeding, but I didn't know how painful it would be."

"It's over, now, Link," the princess said comfortingly. She looked out over the many trees and boulders that enveloped the jungle's landscape. "You can stop thinking about it, now. Just enjoy this brief intermission from all the fighting."

Link gave a small grin, but it quickly departed. After receiving no response from him, Kairi changed the subject. "So have you ever fought someone who transformed into something bigger than you?"

He chuckled. "Yeah. One time, I was just trying to save the princess, and this jerk named Ganondorf transforms into a thousand pound warthog and chases after me. It was quite tedious having him teleport all over the place…"

"Do you save princesses on a regular basis?"

"No, I've only saved the eloquent Princess Zelda and her kingdom."

"Well that's not true; you've saved me before. I'm a princess."

Link gave her a sideways look. "Very funny."

"What?" Kairi asked, not seeing the joke.

"You're no princess."

"Uh, too bad I am."

Link's voice relaxed. "Sorry, definitely not."

"And how would you know?"

"I just know there's no way you're an actual princess. You're too—down to Earth to be a princess." He brought up his hand and relaxed it on her shoulder. "The way you move—it's so unprincipled." His hand glided to the middle of her back. He talked a bit slower, "And the way you speak, it's so—unrefined."

First, the so-called princess removed Link's wandering hand by shrugging him off. Second, she crossed her arms and plainly said, "Thanks."

Link apologized, "Forgive me for rambling; I was only trying to make a point." He turned around to pick up his gear. After strapping on his shield, sword, and arrow holster, he slipped on his hood and said, "Hm…I'm feeling better." He began walking down the hill in the Bandicoot home's direction. "In fact, I'm extremely hungry. See you later."

As she watched him descend down the hill, she heard a slightly confused voice behind her say, "What was all that about?"

Kairi turned to see a confused Daxter and a smirking Goofy. "How long have you guys been here?"

A hand was raised above the cliff's edge; the rest of the person's body was hidden below the cliff. Murray's voice came with the hand. "Way too long. We heard _everything_."

"Oh my gosh...how many more of you are down there?"

Sly's voice from far down called up, "A lot more!"

Goofy teased childishly, "Kairi was flirting!"

"Was not!" she argued.

Daxter interrupted, "Wait, wait, wait! Am I the only one who thought, up till now, that Link was gay?"

* * *

"No, Crash, try not to stress yourself so much!" Coco ordered, seeing her brother's flaw in meditation.

Sitting cross legged, Crash was doing some sort of Egyptian deity-worshipping dance with his arms. He protested with his eyes shut tight, "Wait—I think this is working! I'm seeing all kinds of junk!"

"No, you're just cutting off the circulation to your brain from sitting there so long." Coco sighed and sat down next to him. "Okay, try relaxing your neck, keep your back straight, and put your hands together like you're praying."

The bandicoot mimicked his sibling's actions. "Like this?"

"Good enough. Now close your eyes and concentrate on being _one with nature."_

Both bandicoots did just that…well one of them, I mean. Crash was too busy thinking about whether or not he left his cellular phone on the charger. Ah, who cares? He's supposed to be getting a new one soon, anyway. Maybe he'll get that Samsung touch screen this time, or the seductive iPhone. But that'll add too much to the phone bill. Plus, he needs a job. Maybe he should demand compensation for all that world-saving he does. Rich and heroic? Is that even possible? Wouldn't that be something? If he could star on MTV Cribs—

"CRASH!" Coco exclaimed, setting fire to Crash's thoughts.

"What? I was concentrating!" Crash defended.

"No you weren't! Your eyebrows moved every time you thought of a different subject, genius."

Coming from inside the house, Ratchet walked by and asked, "Need help?"

Coco lit up and consented, "Yeah, totally! Can you help me to get Crash to focus?"

"Easy," said the Lombax. He sat down between the bandicoots, imitating their style of meditating. "Now first, we wanna relax the psyche and let the subconscious take over. Once that happens, the medulla oblongata will start a festive dance in the back of your head, and may shoot off a few streamers. When he's done, the cerebellum will come by and ask for the rent money…"

"THANKS, RATCHET!" Coco scolded loudly.

Ratchet laughed out loud and noticed his work. "Hey, at least I got Crash to focus!"

Crash Bandicoot was indeed focusing intently. Either that or he was staring of into space. I'm guessing it's the latter.

Crash was focusing intently on the random squiggly line floating around in the periphery of his vision. He said out loud, "Ha, I will look at you directly squiggly line! And you won't stop me."

Strangely enough, the line spoke back to him, "No you won't! You never will!"

Crash responded with the element of surprise, "What if I…_look over here—!"_

_"—Then I'll just move over here!" _said the squiggly line, quickly moving to a completely different section Crash's vision.

"Darn it! You know what? Take this!"

Crash blinked.

He heard a faint cry, _"Noooooo…"_

Coco and Ratchet sat there, watching the orange marsupial laugh evilly to himself.

* * *

A shadowy figure stood atop the famous London Clock Tower, otherwise known as Big Ben. In the higher balconies (look up a picture if you don't know what I'm talking about), Calypso paced back and forth, anxiously awaiting someone.

Still seven o'clock in the morning in London, the sun was still giving off dawn's glow. It shined on Calypso's black ninja getup; she tightly held the silver mask in her left hand as she paced. She stopped for a second to glance at the city of London and all its nearby buildings and cars. It was a nice view, but it needed to be demolished.

She sighed and complained, "Bloody **Mefisto**, he's always late!"

"You called, my dear?" said a dark voice. Calypso turned to see a black mist forming behind her; it took on the shape of a man's body, and Draksin immediately appeared in the flesh. His opened black coat fluttered in the high altitude's breeze. His hair wasn't slicked back today; it had a messy, haggard look to it.

"There you are," she began, feeling a bit nervous. "I wanted to meet you here so I could get the O.K. to start building."

Draksin smiled and took off his aviator sunglasses to reveal his acid-yellow eyes. He answered, "No, no, I believe it's much too soon for that…"

"What? But you let Reiden use his powers early! This isn't fair!"

The dark man frowned heavily, startling Calypso. He replied, "And Reiden has been defeated. Do you not like my leading decisions?"

The mystical woman hardened up and answered, "Just not this one. I deserve to start my project today. I announced that I would to that Timothy bloke!"

Draksin went back to smiling evilly again. "Calm yourself, I was only kidding around. Of course you may start building. I've been waiting to see some serious damage for awhile, now."

"Um, thank you, my lord!" Calypso thanked, slightly irritated by the joke.

"Just promise me one thing: you'll do something about that outfit."

"What about my outfit?" she asked. Draksin lifted a finger and black mist immediately surrounded Calypso's upper and lower body. It swirled and encircled her; after it dissipated, she noticed she was now wearing a lime-colored street dress that stopped above the knee and green high heels. Studded bracelets lined her arms. She also noticed the silver mask was still in her possession.

After looking herself over, she glared at Draksin and hissed, "I hate it when you do that."

"I know you do," he replied, chuckling. He disappeared in another black fog, leaving the sorceress by herself on the clock tower.

* * *

On the next--

Wait, I'm getting...cepted...repeat...I'm getting intercept...don't know what......my message...getting blocked by something...looks dark......stay with...

**-X-**

**This is HybridXKenshen. CadeXHybrid fights for good. I fight for what's real...**

**Mefisto = Draksin's last name. **

**Demonic Entry #1**

**_Is hatred worth dying for?_**

**Kenshen out.**

**-X-**

Whoa, I'm back! What the heck happened? Blacked out for a second...

On the next chapter, Calypso finally gets the chance to build her racetracks, which leads to the destruction of many European cities and landmarks. Hmm...maybe not the landmarks. I like those.

Later, Bentley comes up with his plan to help the heroes cheat their way into the championships. That sounds like fun!

Just kidding, it's just a lame slideshow.

Just kidding again, it's very important to this part of the story. Stay tuned!


	38. No Roads Left But One

Chapter 38: No Roads Left But One

London, England: 8:10 a.m.…

"I'm sorry, Beth, but I already told you I'd be running late today and I have to work extra hours," said Mr. Hughes on his cell phone to his daughter. "I'll go to your next recital, I promise."

Mr. Hughes glanced over at his wife sitting in the passenger seat; she was giving him an angry look. He rolled his eyes and continued speaking to his daughter, "I love you, Bethany."

The little girl sighed on the other line, "Okay, daddy…I love you, too."

After hanging up, the man with a slight Irish accent focused intently on the freeway's road ahead of him. He knew his wife was still giving him that disappointed look. "Say what you have to say…"

"You couldn't have just asked your boss to take ONE night off?" she nearly exploded. "You know how much this recital means to—"

"Yes, I know!" Mr. Hughes snapped. "But everyone is either working late, too, or laid off—"

"I don't care about any of that! You haven't gone to a single violin recital and you tell her the same thing every time! If you don't inform your boss about prior obligations you have with your family—"

"I HAVE told him! But we already have an insufficient amount of patrollers and I had to volunteer—"

"Volunteer? Why don't you try volunteering as a good father!" yelled Mrs. Hughes. She turned to the window and pouted.

Due to heavy traffic, Mr. Hughes slowed down the car to a stop. That last remark from his wife must've hit him hard because he closed his eyes and hung his head low, hands clutching the steering wheel of his black SUV. He heard his wife starting to cry from remorse.

"I'm sorry, David. I shouldn't have said that…"

"It's alright," he lied. "It's true."

"No, it's not. I was just angry. I didn't know what I was saying," she apologized. "Please forget what I said!"

David laughed a little and opened his eyes, sincerely smiling at his wife. "Come on, let's get home so we can take our daughter to her violin recital."

Something wasn't right. His wife wasn't even paying attention to him. "Sarah, did you hear me?"

She kept staring up ahead of the traffic with a horrified look.

"Sarah…?" Mr. Hughes decided to check out what she was looking at and immediately understood why she was trapped in a stupor. He felt the ground shake violently. Looking up, he saw eleven or twelve electronic billboards encircling a specific kilometer radius around the freeway; they each read, "Decimating this sixteen square-kilometer area in 1 minutes, 5 seconds." The billboards were actually ticking and counting down.

David asked confusedly, "What in Sam Hill is this nonsense?"

His wife turned to him with a terrified expression. "David…we need to move, NOW!"

The other drivers were now honking horns amid the confusion; some had taken this warning seriously and were trying to back out and flee; others were seriously irritated by the billboard, thinking it as just some sort of prank, so they tried to press on. Combined with the fleers, there was an ocean of traffic jams all over; most of the cars had spilled into the grassy areas on the sides of the freeway, trying desperately to get away or around.

Mr. Hughes had swerved around a sports car to reach the easy to navigate grasses. A large stock truck was now blocking their path. Mrs. Hughes panicked, "D-do you think those signs are all a hoax?"

"I don't want to find out," Mr. Hughes replied, turning the SUV around again.

"Maybe it would be faster if we got out the car like those people," Sarah said, pointing to a crowd of frightened, running pedestrians who had ditched their cars.

"That's starting to sound like a good—wait, I see an opening!" David floored it, speeding through the traffic into more open, spaced out territory. He saw the famous London Bridge up ahead and informed his wife, "If we can make it across the Bridge, we should be safe from whatever that was!"

A loud siren resounded from the billboard's connected megaphones, indicating that the timer had run up. "We're too late!" Mrs. Hughes panicked again.

It was true. David had slowed down because of more congestion in the road before the bridge. He and his wife looked back at the freeway they had just been driving on to witness a large piece of it being lifted high into the air by a single column. It almost looked like a piece racetrack…

But that wasn't the tragic part; all the vehicles that were trying to escape or press forward were all sliding off the sides of the heightened part of the freeway, falling to their demise in the fissures below. Even though they were about two kilometers away, David and Sarah could hear the metallic crashes of every single vehicle that smashed into the ground.

"Oh my God!" Mr. Hughes shouted in horror. He looked at his wife, who remained in a nightmarish stupor as she also stared at the disaster in horror.

But the worst was yet to come; yet another piece of the freeway directly in front of the previous one had been elevated by another column, destroying more vehicles that got in its way. It was immediately followed by more columns rising from the earth, forming an elongated racetrack. These columns kept raising pieces of the freeway that got closer and closer to the London Bridge, which was close to the Hughes' position.

"We won't make it!" Sarah shouted in despair. "Forget the bridge!"

David agreed; he adeptly maneuvered between a minivan and a sedan, breaking out of the traffic that led onto the bridge. He drove along a road next to a few buildings, speeding past many screaming pedestrians and slower cars.

The columns rose up through the middle point of the bridge's road, severing the landmark in half. Many drivers who were already in the middle of the bridge were lucky enough to get across safely; even some of the people who hadn't crossed the halfway point were fast enough to jump the bridge-wide fracture; some were not…

As the Hughes couple drove away, the columns did a U-turn and turned again in their direction.

"Damn it, it's following us!" David shouted, looking into his rearview mirror as the columns rose up behind them. They approached closer and closer with each explosion from the earth until the road underneath the SUV lifted up thirty meters in the air.

"AAAAAAHHH!" Sarah and David shouted at the top of their lungs. However, Mr. Hughes continued to drive forward; he noticed how unstable the disturbed street he drove on was, and he didn't want to risk crumbling a chunk of the heightened road and falling to their deaths.

Luckily for them, the racetrack kept forming in front of them, one piece after the other, as David drove. All he had to worry about was keeping the car stable and in the middle of the track, which was actually a very difficult task.

"GOOD LORD, KEEP THE CAR STRAIGHT!" Mrs. Hughes screamed.

"I'M TRYING!" Mr. Hughes shouted back. A piece of the track crumbled directly behind the car, bouncing it up a little bit. Distracted, Mr. Hughes barely noticed the forming racetrack started to immediately break at a right turn. He thought quickly and slammed the emergency brake, greatly swerving the side.

It wasn't enough, however; the SUV slid until the left side's wheels were thrown over the edge of the track. (Now remember, this is a European country, so the driver is on the right side of the car, and the passenger is on the left.)

David carefully opened his door to escape the eminent danger, holding onto his weeping wife's hand. After opening the car's door, he felt the sports utility vehicle rattle and creak. Since he was the higher of the two, he hastily coaxed for Sarah to climb over him so the car wouldn't fall over.

But as she moved steadily across the driver's seat, the SUV creaked louder and jolted. She screamed, "David, I think it's falling!"

"Not yet—c'mon, Sarah!" David was incorrect; the vehicle had indeed slipped over the edge and was now hanging on by two copper colored pipes. Changing the plan, Mr. Hughes planted one foot on the track and looked back down to his wife. "Sarah, I need you to grab the edge of the seat with your other hand…that's it."

Still crying, she kept her left hand locked on her husband's right, and she latched her right hand on the edge of the driver's seat.

"Good, good. Now reach up and give me your right hand!"

Sarah brought up the other hand which had grasped the seat's edge, but it never reached its destination. With a final jolt, her left hand slipped from her husband's, and the entire vehicle plummeted downward.

"Sarah!" he shrieked before hearing the inevitable scream of terror from his wife. He closed his eyes and faced away from her death. He dropped to his knees and pounded the disturbed road's edge before slowly laying face down.

He continued to lay down on the track's pavement with his arms hanging over the edge, sobbing with his head down.

* * *

All around the city of London, small box-shaped meteors had landed in many convenient locations, like the corners of sidewalks, in the middle of a park's field, a corner store's back alley, a rich man's car, a graveyard, another back alley, and many other various locations.

A twelve-year ole kid got the courage to walk up and observe the black, phone-booth sized blocks lodged into the corner of a sidewalk. Suddenly a British, friendly-sounding female voice came through a small speaker located at the top of the block:

"Hello, people of Earth. Don't worry, this is no alien machine. This is merely a kiosk, property of Wipeout Corporations. Please press the symbol in the middle to activate this kiosk. Hello, people of Earth. Don't worry…"

More and more people gathered around the boy, listening intently to Calypso's ephemeral message. The little boy pressed the central button and the box opened up like an armoire. The contents consisted of a blue holographic touch screen showing Calypso's face. The side panels revealed touch screen menus of sorts, most likely for a tutorial.

She communicated through all kiosks around London; apparently, the rest of the devices hadn't landed all around earth yet. Many gathered around to watch the next message in each part of the half-destroyed city.

"Hello. My name is Arden Calypso, co-founder of the upcoming Twisted Wipeout races. You are currently viewing one of my many kiosks, which will be delivered to every civilized territory of Earth. These devices will encompass every detail relating to the upcoming competition. Press any of the subjects on the side panel to begin. Oh, and if you try to hack my kiosks, it will explode."

There were many kiosks to go around; although scattered, they littered the United Kingdom in a matter of minutes, soon spreading to France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and the rest of Eastern Europe.

Meanwhile, in Paris, France, a few police officers and investigators had gathered around a kiosk that had landed on the police headquarters' front steps. A canine officer brought up his cellular phone to talk into it, "Inspector, you won't believe this!"

Carmelita Fox's Italian voice rang through, _"I know, I'm hearing about it on the radio right now!"_

By then, the people of London were already learning of the new technology to be used in the aptly named Twisted Wipeout competition. Other groups had moved on to the details about the winnings of the contest. "If people join my competition, I will graciously use my magic to grant everyone who died in the making of a certain race track in England their lives back."

"What a desperate move!" yelled a disgusted man.

"That witch!"

"She needs to be imprisoned and executed!"

"She doesn't have the grounds to do such a thing!"

The man closest to the kiosk's screens hollered, "Quiet down, everyone! There's more!"

"The prize is simple for those individuals who defeat my competition," said the video from Calypso. "You will get one free wish granted from me."

The mood changed as some of the people had started murmuring to each other in great interest and disbelief. Calypso continued, "Yes, I do have the power to grant any wish anyone could ask for. If you wish for the ability to fly, I'll give you wings. If you wish to explore the outer reaches of space, I'll give you the Enterprise. If you wish to be rich and famous…well, that's an easy one. If you wish for another wish, I'll kill you where you stand."

* * *

The kiosks rained down in great numbers over countries like the Czech Republic, Russia, India, China, North and South Korea, and of course, Japan. The meteors rained in subtle areas like Nepalese mountain villages, and small forest districts in Bangladesh. Next, they proceeded to land all over the great cradle of life, targeting the most human-populated areas like South Africa and Kenya. Arden seemed to give these post-London areas much more warning than the shell-shocked part of the island in the United Kingdom.

An hour later, they spread to Australian regions. North of the large country/continent, the Wumpa and Insanity islands were bombarded first, landing all across various regions of the islands. The material of the kiosks' outer layer blended well with Insanity Island's tribally architected surroundings. On Wumpa Island, however, it only looked like more useless junk had been added to the isle.

Finally, they hit all over the North and South American regions, reaching as far as Alaskan territory to the tip of Argentina. The northern regions of Canada had many small explosions of snow scattered over the white landscapes; the lower regions were in the middle of springtime, which gave way to earthy craters. The unique topography of the United States and Mexico had been sparsely scattered with kiosks, ranging from twenty to forty in each of the fifty states. The Brazilian jungle had been generously supplied with the info-booths, as were many areas in the Andes Mountains.

* * *

Gray skies above London's Big Ben, 12:42 p.m.…

The murder of those many individuals were, of course, apart of Calypso's plan. She knew very well the billboard warnings weren't enough of a heads-up to completely evacuate a sixteen kilometer area in less than three minutes. She knew many people would come at her with criminal lawsuits and whatnot. However, she made sure only a small but sizable amount people of London were killed; the raining kiosks were equipped with bio-sensors to make sure living organisms, besides trees and plants, weren't in the devices' trajectories. Deaths all over the world would be too much for her to handle, what with keeping the competition legal.

She sat on a levitating spectator's chair of sorts, which emitted blue hovering waves out of its bottom. She sat comfortably with her leg crossed over the other, peering down at the smoldering destruction she had caused.

"That was fun to watch," she commented to herself.

"Indeed it was," said a voice from above her.

She looked up to spot Draksin descending downward to her position. She noticed a small cut above his left eyebrow and a bruise on the cheek below.

"Hmm," she began, thinking of something smart to say. "I haven't seen you wounded since you fought both Orphco and Jeycko's father at once."

"Don't speak!" Draksin spat angrily. "The one I was watching from before—she WON'T be joining us!"

"Well I can see she made that clear," Calypso joked. "You only wanted her for one reason. You should've just gone after the one who defeated Reiden—who it was would make a great addition to our little team."

"First of all, I wanted her because she is _stronger_ than the one who defeated Reiden. Second, while I fought her, I asked the good Dr. Mavo to record our fight and obtain her DNA with one of his high-tech surveillance devices. I was able to figure out the identity of Reiden's assassin from her. She told me she had sensed the entire battle—a highly useful skill—and that a creature named Crash Bandicoot had beaten him."

"Never heard of him," said Calypso.

"Before I fought her, I also discovered she has some kind of emotional connection with this Crash Bandicoot fellow. I'm still deciding my next move, but it will involve attacking either his or her heart."

"Classy. And I doubt this Crash Bandicoot even knows about her?" the sorceress asked interestedly.

"No. On a different subject, has Biff made it to the United States, yet?"

"Most likely still at sea. Subtlety takes time, you know."

"I see," said Draksin. "I'll be going to Russia now to see what plan the doctor and I can come up with. Great work with the city, by the way."

"Thank you, my Lord." Calypso watched as her superior disappeared into mist.

* * *

_At least an oil rig didn't explode…too soon? Didn't think so. Bios, please_.

Aku Aku: Gotcha…

David Hughes

**Age: **41  
**Gender: **Male  
**Species: **Human

Born and raised in Ireland, he moved to London to work as a street patrol officer and sometimes an escort for government officials. He married his now deceased wife, Sara Hughes, and has a fourteen year old daughter named Bethany Hughes. Ever since he was laid off from his escort job two years prior to the events in this chapter, he has had to work night and afternoon shifts patrolling the streets of London. Because of the overworking, he has missed out on priceless family occasions. His past experiences in his previous occupations have made him quite the skilled driver, which is how he plans to compete in the Twisted Wipeout tournament. Now that his wife has been killed, he is finding it hard to choose what he should wish for: his wife's life or vengeance. By the way, Mr. Hybrid would also like to state how he pictures David as Liam Neeson. You know, that guy from _Taken?_ David Hughes is an original character of _CadeXHybrid_.

Aku Aku: Yeah, I saw that movie. It was—

_Insanely amazing! I will find you. And I will thrill you._

Aku Aku: Lame.

_Ahem. Recent **theme songs **I've thought of for two original characters:_

_**Reiden **– From the Inside, by Linkin Park  
__**Calypso **– Flashing Lights, by Kanye West_

_Hmm…thinking of one for Louie's gang. Wait, just thought of it:_

_**Louie's gang **– Welcome to the Jungle, by Guns N' Roses. _

Aku Aku: Nice choices, I'll be sure to visit your profile to find **links to Youtube videos containing those tracks**.

_Thank you, Aku. Now if any of you readers have bright ideas for theme songs for characters, prefereably O.C.s, just sound off in a review. I don't mind if it's for Reiden or Calypso; I might even choose it for their bio._

_Next time, we rejoin our heroes as Bentley prepares his slideshow. Crash is finally starting to get the hang of the Mojo Flow, thanks to Crunch's and Coco's help. However, it will take a lot more for him to stand a chance against the diabolical Draksin, Isaac, Dr. Mavo, and Calypso. Don't miss out on my next chapter, __**Bentley's Next Plan**__!_


	39. Bentley's Next Plan

"_Together, we made it…we made it even though we had our backs up against the wall!"_ Summer vacation, everybody!

Chapter 39: Bentley's Next Plan

Wumpa Island, 6:43 p.m.

Aku Aku, Crunch, Crash, Coco, and Ratchet were all sitting (and floating) in a meditation circle. Crunch had caught on to the whole Mojo deal quite quickly, absorbing small amounts of energy to show off. Ratchet had fallen asleep on the grass, not really giving a hoot about what they were doing. Crash seemed to finally understand what the word FOCUS meant—he sat quietly with an intense look.

"Crash, it might help if you close your eyes," the witchdoctor mask suggested.

"Nah, I've got this!" the bandicoot said through gritted teeth, staring into the ground.

A single blue husk formed from a nearby bush and entered Crash's body. "Hey, I got one!" he announced proudly.

"Well done, Crash!" Crunch congratulated. "I'm glad you got something done before you burst a blood vessel…"

"Yeah, that was hard work. I can't believe the Earth can be so stingy with its Mojo! Oh well, break-time!" Crash fell back and dozed off.

"I guess we'll pick this up later," said Coco, getting up. "I'm gonna go check on Mario, see how far he is."

She walked into the Bandicoot Home and took a left, into the kitchen. There, Keira and Kairi were chatting. Coco greeted them, "'Sup, guys. Have you seen Mario?"

"Yeah, he's working behind the house, now," Keira answered. Suddenly, Mario casually walked in from outside through the front door, heading straight for the bathroom to continue working.

"Hey Mario," Coco said sweetly, "how's it goin' with the plumbing?"

"Eh…" replied the plumber. "Just needa string five pipes to an undaground wahta tank."

"We have a water tank?" asked the bandicootess, surprised.

"Yep. It looks like it's been there for a while, but it'll work." Mario batted his glazed eyes and went back to the bathroom.

Keira offered, "Can we get you anything, Mister Plumber Guy?"

Mario called from the bathroom, "Cold wahta would be nice."

Keira reached up to the wooden cabinets above her. "Are the cups in here, Coco?" she asked, facing the marsupial.

"Over to your right," Coco corrected.

"Here?"

"One more."

As Keira twisted back around to open the cupboard and grab a cup, Kairi sat at the dinner table, wide eyed. "Wow, Keira. Never noticed you had a six-pack."

"Huh? I don't drink. Oh—you mean this?" Keira looked down and flexed her abdominals.

"Um…yeah, that," Kairi answered uneasily.

The blue haired girl laughed and relaxed her six-pack. "Don't be jealous of my gorgeous body!"

Coco came up next to Keira and scolded, "Yeah, Kairi, stop doing that!" She lifted up the bottom portion of her shirt to show off her sculpted abdominals, too. "Don't you know? Slender and thin is always in!" The bandicoot and human high-fived each other.

"Still waitin' on that wahta…" Mario called again.

"How many's in your pack?" Coco asked the other human girl. "Two? Three?"

"I…don't know," Kairi lied, "I've never checked."

Coco and Keira crossed arms and replied flatly, "Bull."

"I know…"

"To the garage!" said Coco in a Batman-esque tone.

"Wahta please!"

The three girls exited the Bandicoot home and headed down the hill toward the garage. Mario poked his head out the bathroom door, "HELLO? Ah, geez…well ain't this a—" _CRASH! _"Whoa! What the heck was that?"

Outside, everyone felt the crash; it actually woke Crash and Ratchet up from their naps. Jak and Link were knelt by the pond behind the house, cleaning their armor and weapons when they heard the loud noise. "What was that?" Jak asked nervously, looking around.

"No idea," Link replied just as nervously.

Looking over to the top of the waterfall, they noticed smoke rising from the summit. Jak concluded, "Something just crash-landed."

Sora and Riku came up from behind the two warriors. The brown haired teen complained, "Oh, GREAT! Now we have to deal with aliens, too?"

Aku Aku floated up to the waterfall's peak, saying, "Don't worry folks, I'm gonna check out E.T." After a few moments of investigation, Aku Aku turned back to our waiting heroes with a weird look and informed them, "Guys, it's some sort of vessel!"

"Aliens, I knew it," Sora concluded. "Hey, maybe they're friendly! What if they want to help us out?"

"Yeah, we'll figure that out as soon as we get up there," said Riku, running up the hill that led to the waterfall's summit.

Jak, Link, and Sora followed suit; Crash, Ratchet, and Crunch followed Coco, Keira, and Kairi up the hill behind the first three guys I mentioned.

When everyone had joined Aku Aku in gaping at the smoking crater next to the edge of the river, they silently traced their gazes to the black mini-fridge-sized block sitting in the middle.

Coco egged, "Crash, go touch it."

"Right here, right now?" he asked anxiously. She pushed him into the crater; he slid, trying his hardest to claw his way back up. Coco shoved her foot onto his forehead. "Just go touch it! C'mon, we're all depending on you, Crash!"

"Yeah!" agreed Sora.

"Be a hero!" cheered Ratchet.

"Make it quick," rushed Jak.

Crash gulped and turned around to slide down the crater, tracking dirt on his blue jeans. He bravely stood up in front of the black vessel and shouted, "Open Sesame!"

Immediately after saying that, the box spoke back to him, "Hello, people of Earth. ("WAH-HAA!" screamed Crash.) Don't worry, this is no alien machine. This is merely a kiosk, property of Wipeout Corporations. Please press the symbol in the middle to activate this kiosk."

"Um, okay…" Crash pushed the symbol and the box started churning and making mechanical noises. Crash turned to the amazed people standing atop the crater and shrieked, "I need an adult!"

"You're seventeen for goodness' sake!" Crunch yelled back.

The box opened in the exact manner it did all over the world; there were side panels and a main section, all touch-screen devices. A black-haired, green-eyed, slight tan-skinned (see: Megan Fox) woman was onscreen talking about some Twisted Wipeout race and how there were many other kiosks like this.

With a little more confidence, Crash turned back to his friends and said, "Hey, it's just some talking TV with a pretty lady inside it! Says her name's Arden—she's talking about a weirdly named race!"

"Did you say race…?" asked Keira. "Wait, I'm coming down!"

Crash pressed an onscreen arrow button to replay the message for Keira. The others decided to follow in after her and began crowding around the kiosk box's wide screen. Before Crash hit the play button, Bentley's voice halted him, "Wait for us, fellas."

Sly, Donald, Daxter, Clank, Goofy, and Murray stood next to the tortoise, giving the people standing in the crater wild looks. Daxter, in particular, yelled, "Whoa, look at the alien technology! What is that, a rum cooler?"

Clank disagreed, "Actually, Daxter, it is something quite different…My scanners indicate that it is made from Blargian technology."

"That's from our galaxy, Clank!" Ratchet exclaimed.

The remaining seven heroes joined the other eleven in the crater, intently listening to Calypso's short messages. Bentley shuddered when the lady warned about hacking, lest the kiosk be detonated. For the remainder of the afternoon until sunset, they focused on the tutorial messages, taking every rule and detail of the mysterious race into account. Little did they know that Mario had crept behind them and curiously watched the videos, getting a little interested in the competition's prize. (1)

"…And signing up is easy. All you have to do is sign your name on the registry tab and you're off to the preliminary rounds, which start in three days. Preliminary rounds will be held in local Wipeout-funded coliseums in the listed regions. Rules for the preliminary rounds will be explained in the next tutorial…"

"Crud, Wumpa Island isn't on here," Coco noticed. "Looks like the nearest coliseum is in Australia somewhere."

"Wait a minute; you actually wanna sign up for that death race?" Daxter asked in disbelief.

Goofy commented, "Shucks, that race sounds awful dangerous."

"Yeah, we should find better stuff to do with our time, like train for the next enemy!" Crash agreed.

"Oh yeah," Coco remembered, "We still haven't told some of you guys about what's happening. Bentley, now would be a good time to present your plan if you've come up with it yet."

Bentley explained, "Well, I didn't put in any sound effects and I need a new battery for my laser pointer, but it should be good to go,"

"Huh? Plan for what, Bentley?" Sly asked in confusion. "Can someone start explaining?"

"Come on, everyone, we should get back to the house," Aku Aku suggested.

"Wait, fellas, I think I want in on this…" said a voice from behind and above them. They turned around to see Mario comfortably sitting on the crater's edge; he had apparently watched everything they had watched.

"You?" Crash Bandicoot asked, puzzled.

"Yeah, I overheard a lot of conversations while I woycked today. About chemistry assignments, Mojo Flows, weird people called 'Precursas', and futuristic racing competitions. It inevitably got me thinkin', 'Wow, these people are runnin' their own asylum.' But now I see this _thing,_ and I'm thinkin' this whole world has gone nuts."

"So why do you want in on it?" Keira asked.

"Well, I know ya friend Jak is gonna be the racer, and I figgad he needs at least a pit crew or a few mechanics. I, uh, have actually had experience in the life on the fast-lane, and I could probably help you guys out. And don't worry, I already know you're all a bunch of freedom-fighting inna-galactic heroes, so there's nothin' tah hide."

Every hero looked sheepish for a moment and Coco commented, "Aw man, you are good!"

Mario replied with slight anger, "You know what else is good? An ice-cold glass of wahta! THAT I NEVER GOT!"

Coco looked to Keira and asked, "You think this has something to do with that cup…you're still holding?"

All she could do was look down at the empty cup in her hand and mutter, "Oops…"

"Dropped the ball on that one, didn't you Keira?" Daxter commented snidely.

The sun went down, and the heroes (plus Mario) retreated into the house. They gathered in the living room, sitting in no uniform order around Bentley. The turtle sat in his wheelchair next to an easel with many papers stacked onto it; this was his "high-tech" presentation, of course. The title paper read, "Plan to Take Down Arden and her Competition."

"Sooo…" began Daxter, sitting next to Coco, "You were gonna have sound effects for this?"

Bentley scratched the back of his head, "Well…nope, sorry; I was only talking big game. Now, let's proceed."

He tore off the title paper and revealed a blown up picture of Arden Calypso's face. He took a wooden pointer-stick and slammed it on the sorcerer's picture. Before the ottsel got a chance to comment on the fact that Bentley didn't need a laser pointer any more than sound effects, Bentley pressed forward, "THIS is our target, Arden Calypso. Yeah, she's the lady from those tutorial videos, but she's also enemy number two after Reiden Long. From what we've learned so far, she's a mystical sorceress who grants wishes. We don't know much about her, and I think the best way to understand her capabilities is to go undercover and join the race—"

"Whoa, now!" whoa'ed Crunch. "That's a little…crazy, you foo'!"

Jak said calmly, "Relax, Crunch, we know what we're doing. Besides, I'll be the only one racing, and that's my forte."

Daxter jumped from the couch to the adjacent armchair, anxiety in his words, "H-hold on, Jak! Now I know you love driving…and competitions…and killing stuff…and making other people's lives miserable…and showing off…but this is a race that involves COMBAT. I am definitely not a fan of COMBAT racing. Now maybe if we were unknowingly poisoned and forced to work as a dead guy's racing crew, then MAYBE I'd put my fear of dying aside. Hopefully, something like that won't happen in the near future, but what I'm trying to say is maybe we should come up with a plan 'B' before we try 'A'…?" (2)

"C'mon Dax, grow a backbone," Jak responded. "We really don't have much to worry about. Bentley's gonna be helping us through the entire race, and by helping, I mean cheating."

Bentley frowned and said sarcastically, "Gee, thanks guys. That blew through about…" the turtle started ripping off elaborately drawn pages from the canvas. "…fourteen of my plan pages. So to wrap things up, we're gonna cheat our way through the somewhat-dangerous preliminary rounds, enter the competition, saving the lives if millions in the process, and play it undercover style, all while Jak casually races under a different name. Yep, that's pretty much—"

"—Oh, snap!" Coco shrieked. "I forgot—all those people who died! Was it real, or not? Let's put on the news!"

Crash picked up the remote and flipped the television on. The station had been left on Nicktoons; the bandicoot flipped the channel from Lizard Ball Z Kai to the news channel. (3!)

"Oh…my…God…" Coco uttered. Everyone stared in awe as a helicopter camera feed showed a charred and destroyed city, with large racetracks protruding from the debris-covered surface. The news' camera panned to a half sunken bridge with a single piece of it rose up to form a U-turn of sorts. Then, Bentley, Sly, Murray, Donald, Goofy, Sora, Coco, and Crunch recognized that as the London Bridge.

"No…that…that's in London!" Sly exclaimed.

Sora wondered, "Wait, does this place have a huge clock tower called Big Ben?"

"Yeah," Crunch answered. "Have you been there?"

"We traveled to a similar world with that big tower," the boy replied in amazement. "I can't believe that place ended up like that!"

Crash balled up his fist and said, "This was Arden's doing, no doubt! Hopefully she'll keep her word, 'cuz we're gonna take that race and shove it in her face!"

"Nice rhyme," said Mario nonchalantly. "Hmm. I should probably call my fiancé and tell her I'll be home late."

"You have a fiancé?" Coco asked. "That's cute! What's her name?"

For the first time, a look of deep affection spread across Mario's face as he answered, "Her name's Peaches, the sweetest girl in the world."

The three females of the room 'awed'; Riku whispered to Sora, "Watch this…"

The silver-haired boy cleared his throat and said loudly, "I think that's very sweet of you to say, Mario. I hope someday that I, too, can find a woman who understands my feelings and shows me love no matter what…" More 'awes' from the girls. However, he received different responses from the males.

"Shut up, ya fruit loop!" Ratchet spat.

"Aw, phooey, ya fake palooka!" Donald steamed.

"Stop trying; you're not gettin' any," Mario put down.

"You sure you didn't mean 'find a man'?" Daxter rudely remarked. He sounded serious, however, when he asked, "What, you mean he isn't gay, either?"

* * *

Tokyo, Japan…

In a brightly lit, multi-leveled car garage, a thin man with purple highlights on one long strand of his generally short hair sat on the hood of his green, expensive-looking sports car. On either side of him, an attractive woman was held under his arms. They were surrounded by at least forty other Japanese people with similar hairstyles and sports cars. The man spoke to everyone, "Watakushi ga kangae te iru…" _I have been thinking… _"Resu nitsuite." _About the race._

His fans kept their gazes on him as he continued, "Sore ha kantan da, ga sore ha atarashii." Translated, he said, "It seems easy, but it is also new."

After getting sounds of agreement from his peers, he continued, "Mirai no kuruma ha ne ga tanoshii." Translated, he remarked, "Futuristic vehicles sound fun." He added, "Watakushi ha itsumo ijou en yori man wo shiyou koto ga deki masu." (That was a mouthful!) "And I can always use a couple million more yen," is what he had said. Then, he detached his arms from the women, jumped down from his car, and said in plain English, "I'll do it."

His fans began cheering and hollering. He pompously walked forward and announced, "Come on, pung-yos! To the coliseum!" Everyone cheered and whooped.

"Um, Shingo?" began his friend Akira, silencing the car fans. "The preliminary rounds don't start for another three days."

"Oh…then let's just drive around the city for fun!" the arrogant man rallied.

Everyone cheered and whooped again and dispersed to their own cars; Shingo hopped into his own car, followed by his lady friends, and started it, every other person following suit. They all pulled out of the wide, vacant car garage, speeding down the spiraled pathway to the ground level. Shingo showed off by drifting the whole way down: "Tokyo Drift, SUCKAS!"

* * *

Meanwhile, in the United States, west of Liberty City, in Alderny City's State Correctional Facility…(4)

After a good search from the prison guard, Gerardo Lopez was finally allowed to sit down and speak with his brother. He sat in the chair and smiled at his orange jumpsuit-clad brother through the glass, picking up the telephone and saying, "Yo, Antonio."

"Yo…didn't expect to see you show up," Antonio replied. "I'm guessin' Mom sent her little favorite to check on me, right?

"Listen, let's cut that sibling rivalry crud. I'm here 'cuz I'm your brother, and Momma can't stand to see us fight while you're locked up. And I don't know why you keep sayin' I'm her favorite. If anything, Cristi's her favorite."

"Whatever, man. How has Cristi been, anyway?"

Gerardo replied, "Not caring about what happens to you, as usual."

"That's nice."

"Listen, Antonio," Gerardo began, sounding serious. "Have you been hearing about those huge things falling out of the sky? They're for a big racing event or something. The prize is a free wish."

Antonio replied with interest, "Yeah, I heard about those. A free wish, you say?"

"Yeah, it's from some kind of genie lady with powers or something," Gerardo attempted to explain.

"So?"

"So I'm gonna join the competition and try to wish you outta this joint, man." Gerardo's gaze drifted to the distant cellblocks behind Antonio. "I know it's gotta be a nightmare in there."

"Yeah, it is…thanks bro. I overheard part of the news in the common room, and I'm pretty sure what you're talking about is a dangerous race," said Antonio. "You sure you wanna do this, bro? I'd rather be doin' time than missin' your funeral."

"No, you're in here way too long for a crime I know you didn't commit," Gerardo assured. "I'm gettin' you outta here."

The guard behind Gerardo announced, "Two minutes left."

Sighing, he said, "Well, I gotta get back to Ma's house and help her pay off debts. Later, man." Gerardo stood up from the chair and departed from the prison house, mindset on learning more about the upcoming racing competition.

* * *

_1) I promise to GOD I won't make a Mario Kart spin-off._

_2) Yeah, what Daxter was describing with the whole poison deal is what happens in Jak X: Combat Racing…man that game was intensely frustrating._

_3) Holy Dragon Balls, Mr. Hybrid! __**Dragon Ball Kai**__ is actually on Nicktoons! Wait, calm down, it's not really __**Dragon Ball Kai**__. There's a Z in it. The Nicktoons version has less blood and swearing, so it's still not completely true to the manga. Ah well…_

_4) For those of you who haven't played Grand Theft Auto IV, Alderny (New Jersey's Jersey City) is the second city next to Liberty City's Algonquin (New York's Manhattan), and is considered Liberty City's "Ugly Sister."_

_Now, I don't like the idea of adding characters from a city in Grand Theft Auto as much as you do, but hey, it could be MUCH worse. Like, if I added characters from the franchise. THAT would be a train wreck waiting to happen. Plus, in all honesty, I was just getting lazy with the locations…_

_So, did you like the __**We Made It**__ thing at the beginning? School was out for me last Friday, and WE MADE IT! (Lyrics by Busta Rhymes and Linkin Park)_

**Aku Aku:** May I get started on the bios, now?"

…_sure._

**Aku Aku:** Finally…

Shingo Miyami

**Age: **19  
**Gender: **Male  
**Species: **Human

Raised by a wealthy mobster who specialized in "acquiring" fast cars, Shingo has always had things handed to him. He drove his first car when he was eight, and won his first race when he was eight and a half. Over time, he has gained the respect from local racers in Tokyo, and he is obviously the best driver they've seen. From previous street races to Formula-1 racing events, he had proved to be the best driver in all of Tokyo. Shingo's attitude can best be described as "gimmie-gimmie," and he always gets. He's competing in the Twisted Wipeout competition to…well, get richer. Shingo Miyami is an O.C. of _CadeXHybrid_.

Gerardo Lopez

**Age: **24  
**Gender: **Male  
**Species: **Human

Gerardo is a man of Dominican and Mexican descent and lives in Liberty City's bough of Algonquin. He works as a taxicab driver for the citizens of Liberty City, and is never afraid to take tips to rush the delivery. Recently, his brother Antonio was sentenced to twenty five years in prison for the murder of an old man (the geezer had money), and has no chance of seeing parole due to cursing out the judge. While that wasn't smart, Gerardo still believes his brother murdered no one and wants to win the Twisted Wipeout races to wish for his brother's freedom. Hybrid made Gerardo Lopez, which makes him an O.C. of _CadeXHybrid_.

_Next time, the last major character to join the race will be mentioned, and you might recognize him. The rest will be minor characters and, therefore, won't be mentioned until the actual race starts. Also, our heroes prepare themselves for the upcoming race over the span of three days and our favorite bandicoots learn a new trick - Mojo Blast! But in the midst of it all, Orphco drops by Wumpa Island with some HIGHLY important news. Stay tuned to find out what it is in __**Preliminary Preparations**__!_

_Hybrid OUT! Speaking of Hybrid, I'll bet you can't tell what two animals my avatar's crossed between. SPOILER ALERT: I'm not telling you._


	40. Preliminary Preparations

Aku Aku: Later, Hybrid! I have…a mandatory aerobics class to go to.

_That's a lie! Ah, well._

_Before you read this cool chapter, I want ALL of you to teleport to Chapter 3: The Lost and Shammed, and I want you to scroll to the end of the chapter and read the little Author's Note #1. I just put that there, and I'm very VERY peeved and disappointed._

Chapter 40: Preliminary Preparations

Los Angeles, 2:00 a.m.…

Sleeping was something his mind had become unfamiliar with. Any time he tried to fall asleep, he knew he would be awakened with the terrible dream again and again. It was a cycle that never ceased, and he wanted to take back control of his life and find out just what was killing him inside.

The blue hedgehog stood on the balcony of his hotel room, watching the many glowing cars cruising along on the streets down below. The cars made him think of the many nodes in his brain, forever traveling to different regions of the city. If there was an accident, then part of the city would have a stoppage of vehicles; so would his mind, if there was a stoppage of thought in one particular part of his psyche. Maybe it was his subconscious telling him his fighting days were over or, more recently discovered, his unknown past life is resurfacing.

It seems he had been trapping himself in his own thoughts for months now. He found it hard to focus even on the impending decision on whether or not he should sign up for the Twisted Wipeout race. Suddenly, his echidna friend entered his hotel room and joined him on the balcony.

"How are you holding up, Sonic?" Knuckles asked. "You look like you could use a few more sleeping pills."

"You know, no one has really told me whether or not I'm supposed to chew on those pill-things. They taste awful," Sonic complained, making a disgusted face.

"No, you half-wit, you're supposed to swallow those WHOLE!" the echidna chastised.

"Excuse me for never taking drugs before!" Sonic shot back.

"It's common sense for God's—"

A voice from the hotel room quelled their argument, "Are you two fighting again?" The voice was accompanied by a pink female hedgehog wearing a red dress and gold bracelets. She flipped her pink hair as she said, "Knuckles, leave Sonic alone!"

Knuckles shrugged. "Whatever…so have you decided on racing or not?"

Sonic thought for a moment before saying, "Eh…sure, why not? It may be the only chance I have of finding out what the heck's wrong with me."

The female hedgehog stated, "We'll be behind you one hundred percent of the way, Sonic."

"Thanks, Amy," said Sonic, smiling at the girl. He brought his hands up on the balcony's banister and prepared to jump over.

"Wait, Sonic!" Amy shouted, "Where are you going?"

Casually, the blue hedgehog replied, "I'm gonna go sign my name on the kiosk's registry thing."

Knuckles intervened, "Wait, you can't just use our real names! It'll attract way too much attention!"

Sonic let go of the banister and asked, "Okay, so what name should I choose?"

"I don't know, figure something out."

Amy suggested, "How about that name you've always wanted for a son?"

Recollecting the name, Sonic blurted, "Oh, yeah! That's a great idea. Well, I'm off to sign up." Sonic hopped over the balcony, into the city's streets.

(1)

* * *

Day 1

Wumpa Island, the same morning…

"Alright, children, show me your skills!"

Crash, Crunch, and Coco obeyed Aku Aku and began their newly learned Mojo Absorption trick. Coco showed the most adept skill as she easily extracted small bits of Mojo from the grass below her. Following her, Crunch began hauling out white particles from the grass and their tree-house. (Due to his large stature, he required more Mojo.) Although the last to execute, Crash had finally gotten the hang of the mystical technique; the Mojo particles that entered the orange bandicoot's body weren't as small as Coco's or Crunch's, but he still got the energy he requested.

"Good work, guys!" Aku commended.

"Thanks," said Crash, "it took me forever to master."

"I don't think we've mastered it quite yet," said Coco. "Still takes us a while to start. Also, the Mojo still isn't quite microscopic like Aku Aku's."

The witchdoctor mask said, "In time, child, you will be able to master it. But remember: I have been practicing the uses of Mojo for thousands of years, so I doubt any of you will be able to reach my level of understanding of the ways of Mojo."

"Wait, so does that mean you can take on those suckas tryna take over the world all by yourself?" Crunch inquired with a raised brow.

Shaking his head, Aku Aku responded, "I said I understand it more, not that I can utilize it more harshly. If anything, it's you three who can use the power of Mojo to overpower our enemies. We'll start the next lesson in one hour."

"Cool," shrugged Crunch. "C'mon, Crash, let's go work out in the gym!"

"Yeah, I'll catch up with you in a bit," Crash responded. "I need to talk to Aku Aku."

"Okey-dokey." As Crunch jogged down to the garage, Crash turned to his guardian with a suspicious look.

"So…Aku," Crash began, "…do you want to tell us more about that 'sword' I got back in Buru?"

"Yeah, you've been kind of avoiding that subject," Coco observed.

For a second or two, Aku Aku remained silent before saying, "Look, I know as much about your parents as the both of you do, and what your father was doing with a samurai sword is beyond me."

The bandicoot siblings sighed in defeat. The older one said, "Well, I tried. Meet you back in an hour, Aku Aku."

Coco followed Crash to the gym where Crunch, Keira, Kairi, Daxter, and Clank were already working out there. Yes, you read correctly.

Crunch greeted the newcomers, "So what are we conditionin' today?"

"Torso," answered Crash.

"Waistline," answered Coco.

Crash snickered as he loaded the bar with weights, "And the Thunder-Thighs scream, 'Maybe someday!'"

Coco glared at him and asked almost sincerely, "Do you wanna die today?"

Keira and Kairi were hanging upside-down on two bars, doing some type of upside-down sit-up exercises. The amber-haired one asked, "Are we done yet?"

Keira persisted, "No way. Haven't felt the burn yet."

"Well, I do…"

Daxter and Clank looked as if they were sparring on the garage's lone blue mat. The ottsel stood in a karate-kid stance with one leg bent in the air while the mini-robot idly stood by, watching his sparring partner with bewilderment.

"Daxter," Clank began, "I am not familiar your fighting style. Is it supposed to be a replica of the Leviathan mating dance?"

Daxter laughed, "Ho-ho! Far from it, my friend!" The orange critter took off at an amazing run towards Clank, accompanied by a blue, swooshy background. He jumped and cried, "Super Justice Kick!" In midair, Daxter threw his foot out and struck Clank dead-on the nose (where it would be).

Clank didn't move, let alone blink. A metallic _PING_ noise resounded throughout the garage. Daxter suddenly felt a shattering pain in his big toe.

"AAAHHH! OW! OW! OW!" the ottsel screamed as he dropped and writhed on the mat, clutching his right foot in agony.

Clank smiled. "Hehehe! Win!"

Meanwhile, on the sit-up bars, the blue-haired girl urged, "C'mon, just a few more! We might even be able to get back that point you lost for us yesterday."

"About that," Kairi began. "What exactly are the points from?"

"Jak always says I seduce him too much, so we made a bet to see who could catch who off guard," Keira explained. "We got a point yesterday morning, remember?"

"Nope, not really. But I do know that this game sounds flirty and a little filthy, so—"

"—I think Sora's in on it—"

"—No way, why didn't he tell me?"

"I said I THINK he's in on it. That's what I heard from Jak, anyway."

Kairi slowed down her exercise. Curiously, she asked, "Um, Keira? About Jak, why is he such…how should I put this nicely…a meanie-head?"

Keira also slowed down to answer her question. "Well…he's had a rough life in the past three and a half years. Trust me, his attitude used to be way worse. His voice was colder, he carried this unrelenting scowl all the time, and there never seemed to be any light left in his eyes. Sometimes I wonder if he'll ever be the same again."

"Whoa…I had no idea," said a perplexed Kairi, hanging upside-down. "What happened?"

Keira then noticed that the bandicoots and robot were also listening intently as they had stopped all means of exercise. Sheepishly, the girl replied, "Sorry, guys, I just don't feel comfortable putting Jak's business on blast."

"Sounds like a scary guy," Crash commented.

"Please, scary doesn't say the HALF of it!" said Daxter, still writhing in agony.

Keira said, "I used to be really afraid of him, like I'd imagine one minute we're together, and the next thing I know…he's that monster again—"

"Keira?" called Jak's voice from outside the garage. "Hey, Keira! I need your help with something!"

The blue-haired girl shouted back, "Help with what?"

"You know…something!"

Keira sensed deception in his voice. She shot a quick look to Kairi before shouting, "Get Daxter or Sora to help you!"

"Uh…I'd prefer if you were the one to—"

"Sorry, buddy, not gonna fly!" Keira rejected with a smirk.

"DARN IT!" Jak cursed loudly.

Talking to the upside-down girl next to her, Keira said, "As you can see, he's not very good at seducing me, but I'll go humor him, anyway." She flipped off the bar and exited the gym.

An hour later, the bandicoots returned to the spot they had been previously training on in front of Aku Aku. The witchdoctor mask got straight to the next lesson.

"Unfortunately, we are short of time and won't be able to fine tune your Mojo Flow skills," Aku announced. "We will be diving into the next basic Mojo technique: Mojo Blast. This is a highly destructive utilization of your Mojo powers that will take much longer to learn than Flow. It is basically putting all that energy you absorbed to good use. Allow me to demonstrate." Aku Aku opened his mouth and there he summoned a glowing husk of Mojo. It faded away, and Aku Aku continued to explain, "It's an expendable manifestation of your energy."

Coco added, "And it explodes on contact with stuff, right?"

"True, but we need to work on actually summoning the energy, first. Let us start with gaining energy."

Crash, Crunch, and Coco repeated their already learned technique to obtain an ample supply of Mojo. Once that was done, the witchdoctor mask said, "Now I want you to concentrate on trying to give some of the Mojo you just absorbed _back_."

"Back? Why back?" Crunch asked.

"Because giving it back is equivalent to absorbing Mojo, just outside your body, if that makes sense. So in other words, you do the same thing to absorb Mojo, except in reverse!"

"Aw man, does that mean we have to ask the Earth to TAKE BACK our Mojo?" Crash asked in a complaint. "That part was kind of hard to do."

"No, my boy, the Earth is always willing to take back energy, so no asking is required. But you will need to learn how to exude the Mojo from your body. First, let us enter our meditative states, as this is the first step to most everything Mojo related."

The bandicoots did as they were told; once in a meditative state, Aku Aku commanded, "Now release your energy!"

"Yeah," said Coco with her eyes closed, "…we don't know how to do that."

"Well, how else can you expend your own energy?" their guardian trivialized.

"Running," answered Crunch.

"Jumping," answered Crash.

"Fighting," answered Coco.

Aku Aku corrected, "You must use your mind when expending Mojo energy, so tell me what kind of thinking expends energy."

"Intuitive thinking?" Coco guessed.

"Nope. That's actually the opposite type."

Crash and Crunch were at a loss for words; they thought hard, searching for the conundrum's answer. "Oh man, this is a tough one!" Crash admitted, straining himself.

"Think, Crunch…think," Crunch said, also straining himself. You could tell because the veins in his head were on the brink of exploding.

Crash wiped sweat from his brow as he said, "Man, I'm getting worn out just thinking about!"

"Wait…" said Coco, "I think Aku's yanking our chain."

It was true; the witchdoctor mask was snickering to himself as he watched the two bandicoot boys struggle to come up with an answer. "That's it, Crash and Crunch. Thinking about what type of thinking that expends energy—expends energy!"

For six seconds, the boys sat there with blank expressions. Then, Crash exploded, "OH, YOU'VE GOTTA BE FLIPPIN' KIDDIN' ME!"

"DON'T EVER DO THAT TO MY MIND AGAIN, FOO'!" Crunch hollered.

Coco and Aku Aku continued laughing. "Good one, Aku!" Coco said in between laughs.

"Yes, yes, thank you, my child. Don't worry, that way of summoning a Mojo Blast is very difficult and I don't expect you to learn it today. There is an easier way, however. It is actually quite simple: screaming very loudly."

"Screaming?" Crash repeated. "Hey, I can do that!"

"Yes, you can," Aku Aku agreed. "It is good for shorter, less affective Mojo Blasts that project out of your body. Now, everyone can feel the Mojo inside of them, swishing and swashing like water in a bottle, right?"

All three bandicoots answered in unison, "Right!"

"Now we just need to learn how to move that watery-like feeling to our hands, and then we will be able to discharge it from our bodies. The blast's size depends on however much of that Mojo you move. Now let's begin."

"Wait, Aku Aku," Crunch suddenly halted. "Can we do a motivational training montage like in those Rocky movies to make this go faster?"

"Um…sure, go ahead."

"I'll pick the song!" Crash declared.

_**Insert Remember the Name, by Fort Minor.**_

The three bandicoots started doing jumping-jacks to get the feel of the Mojo inside them. As they did them, Crash sang to the music in the background, "This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill, fifteen percent concentrated power of will! Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain, and a hundred percent reason to remember the name!"

Later, they did Blast positioning exercises. They punched the air, starting to feel the Mojo-energy flow to their arms and let out small battle-cries as they did so. Crash picked up the verse again, "He doesn't need his name up in lights, he just wants to be heard, whether it's or the beat of the mike. He feels so unlike everybody else alone, in spite of the fact that some people still think they know him, but scratch them! He knows the code, it's not about the salary, it's all about reality and makin' some noise. Makin' a story, makin' sure his clique stays up. That means when he puts it down, Coco's pickin it up!"

Later that afternoon, as the montage's speed dictates, the bandicoots were doing upside down sit-ups, similar to what Keira and Kairi were doing earlier in the morning. They did their sit-ups on an elongated tree branch that was strong enough to support their weight. As Crash had rapped, Coco picked it up, "Who the heck is she anyway? She never really talks much. Never concerned with status, but still leavin' 'em star-struck. Humbled through opportunities given despite the fact that many misjudge her 'cuz she makes a livin from writin' raps! Put it together herself, now the picture connects. Never askin' for someone's help to get some respect. She's only focused on what she wrote, her will is beyond reach, and now it all unfolds: the skill of an artiste!"

The sun began to set as the scene changed to the three bandicoots and Aku Aku atop the waterfall where the kiosk had crash-landed. The marsupials were balancing themselves on handstands in the river's shallow water. They were lined up along the waterfall's dangerous edge and could be seen from the grounds below. Crunch began the last verse, "This is twenty percent skill, eighty percent fear. Be a hundred percent clear 'cuz Mr. Crunch is ill! Who woulda thought he'd be the one to set the Wumpa in flames? And I heard him wreckin' with the crystal method name of the game. Came back, dropped Mega-Def, and took 'em to church! I'm like bleach man, why you have the awesome-est verse? This dude is the truth, now everybody's givin' him guest seats. His stock is through the roof; he beat the game without any cheats!"

Crash finished up the chorus as the scene changed back to the three bandicoots fiercely punching the air, but it was night time. "This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill, fifteen percent concentrated power of will! Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain, and a hundred percent reason to remember the name!"

By the end of the day, the bandicoots were located in the jungle somewhere, immensely tuckered out. Aku Aku commended, "Great work today, children! Do any of you have the strength to try the Mojo Blast one last time?"

While his sibling and best friend made no attempt to raise their hands, Crash raised his and said, exasperatedly, "Sure…I'll do it…"

He stood up weakly, eyeballing the sea in front of him. Standing on the edge of the island, Crash charged up his Mojo for the last time (this time finding difficulty to start the process), and held out his hand, allowing the Mojo-energy to flow to it. After a moment of concentration, he yelped, "Kee-YAA!"

To everyone's surprise, the part of the island was illuminated with the white glow of a Mojo ball hovering in Crash's right palm. "Whoa!" the bandicoot shouted in amazement.

"Amazing, Crash!" said Aku Aku.

"No way, he's doing it!" Coco marveled.

"That's our boy!" Crunch said proudly.

The ball of Mojo dissipated in Crash's hand. Somehow, that little trick had sapped the rest of his strength, judging by the way he breathed heavily and knelt in exhaustion.

After a short celebration, the bandicoot family decided to head back home. Upon arriving, they opened the door and noticed everyone had gathered in the adjacent living room. Weird enough, the other heroes turned and gazed at the bandicoots.

Crunch wept, "Oh, no! I had a dream like this once!"

Followed by her brother and best friend, Coco walked into the living room and asked, "You guys having a meeting without us?"

"Actually," began Jak, "We were just waiting for you guys."

"Why?"

Jak only pointed to a corner of the room; following his finger, the bandicoots and Aku Aku spotted the Precursor Orphco leaning on the wall.

"Glad you could finally make it back," the blue man said in his usual serious tone. "My brethren and I have news about yet another enemy of ours."

"No way!" the bandicoot family shouted in unison.

"Yes; he is a crazed scientist stationed somewhere in Russia. His name is Dr. Lusef Petrovich Mavo."

Aku Aku inferred, "I guess you're all here because we need a new game plan."

"Yes," Link confirmed. "Jak and I were thinking about splitting up the team."

Crash contemplated this decision before agreeing, "Yeah, that sounds like the best idea at a time like this."

"So how are gonna split up?" Coco asked.

Ratchet responded, "Well, we thought about whoever needs to help Jak in the race should go with him and the others should go to that Rusher place with Link to take care of Mavo."

"Right, so I'm gonna need Bentley with me, since he'll be helping us win," said Jak. "Anyone else want to volunteer?"

Coco did. "Crash and I have lots of experience with races, so what do you say, Crash?"

"Sure, sounds fun," Crash complied. "What about you, Crunch?"

The burly bandicoot thought for a second before saying, "I think I should split the help and go with Link. You two will be fine without me, right?"

The bandi-siblings nodded and Jak continued, "Come on, everyone, we need to decide."

Mario volunteered, "Well, I'm in ya pit crew, so you know I'm comin'."

Jak said, "Okay, that's one more. Anyone else?"

Daxter hopped up to his legally owned spot on Jak's shoulder. Talking about himself and Keira, he said "So…what, you need us to say that we're going with you?"

The blonde-green haired man cleared his throat before saying, "Alright, then…"

Seeing that DAXTER was going, Ratchet quickly volunteered, "Yeah—Clank and I are going with ya, too, buddy."

Crunch teased, "Why? 'Cuz Coco's goin'?"

Ratchet unsuccessfully avoided blushing in front of everyone. He replied, "No! I'm a really good mechanic. You know, I can fix things, I carry around a giant wrench—I'm really good with my hands!"

THAT was the wrong thing to say.

The Bandicoot family, Cooper gang, Hylian Hero, tiny robot, ottsel, blue-haired girl, Keybladers, court knight, and duck mage exploded with laughter.

"Okay…" said Jak with a weird look. "That all?"

Out of nowhere, Goofy volunteered, "Hey, I wanna go!"

Donald and Sora gave him a confused look. The bird asked, "Are you serious?"

Sora pointed out, "Yeah, that's not how things usually go!"

The dog-man responded, "What? I used to be in charge of the king's gummi ship before he promoted me."

Sora asked, "Well, do you want us to come with you?"

"Shucks, don't worry about me, fellas! I'll be fine!" Goofy assured. "Link needs you two."

Sora cut his eyes to Link before saying, "Eh…okay."

Kairi interrupted, "Besides, I'm going to Russia. You're not just gonna leave me, are you?"

"Eh…no."

Link asked, "So can we have everyone who's assisting Jak in the race please raise their hand?"

Crash, Coco, Bentley, Ratchet, Clank, Goofy, Mario, Daxter, and Keira all raised their hands for Link to count. He mumbled, "Eight…nine…plus Jak, that makes ten people." Next, he directed, "Now, everyone who's coming with me to Rush-Ah, please raise your hand."

Sora, Donald, Kairi, Crunch, Sly, and Murray raised their hands. Link asked, "Who is still undecided?'

Kairi answered, "Aku and Riku."

Riku perked up from nearly dozing off, "Oh, yeah. I'll be going with Link to…what was it, Costa Rica?"

"Way off. Russia," Sly Cooper corrected.

"And I, too, shall be going to Russia," Aku Aku announced to Crash and Coco's surprise. "Do not worry my children; I will try to periodically teleport back and forth to continue our Mojo lessons."

Orphco suddenly intervened, "So it's a plan? I will give you all time to prepare for departure. During that time, my comrades and I will try zeroing in on Dr. Mavo's whereabouts."

Mario scratched at his light beard and thought now would be a good time to tell the bandicootess, "Oh, yeah—while you all were out doin' yer montage thing, I finished up the plumbin' job."

Coco pointed off in a random direction. "Look, Crunch!"

Crunch looked in the direction she pointed. "What is it?"

Like lighting, Coco threw her elbow into Crash's abdomen, causing him to lurch forward, and reeled up the back of her fist into his face. She darted out of the living and into the house's lone bathroom.

Sharing the same confused expression as everyone else in the room, Sly asked, "What was her problem?"

Gasping in pain, Crash whimpered, "She could've just ASKED!"

* * *

Day 2

Crash, Coco, Crunch, and Aku Aku had gotten up early to train somewhere in the island's labyrinth of a jungle. Meanwhile, Jak, Daxter, Mario, Goofy, and Keira had all gone to the kiosk to learn more about the vehicles sponsored in the race.

"So lemme get this straight," Mario said, "the cars can fly? And they can shoot stuff from different spots on the car?"

Keira verified, "Yeah, and certain unlock pads on the racetrack can activate those 'spots' so you're not using them all at once."

"Alright…so what kind of weapons do the cars have on 'em?"

Goofy answered this time, "If I remember, there are rockets, missiles, mines, and bombs. They'll even let Jak use shields, too!"

"Those might come in handy," Jak commented. "This race doesn't seem too hard. It's just like the races back in Haven City, except with guns."

"And we LOVE guns!" Daxter added. "So are you gonna sign your name on it or not?"

"Might as well," Jak submitted. With his finger, he doodled J-A-K-. "Hold on…shouldn't I use a different name if we're going undercover?"

Keira concurred, "Yeah, we don't want Arden to recognize us."

Jak nodded and hit the eraser button; he scribbled M-A-R-.

Back in the Bandicoot Home, downstairs in the kitchen, Link, Riku, Sora, and Donald were sitting at the dinner table, trying to draw up some attack plans for their descent into Russia.

Link argued, "Obviously, a silent and stealthy approach would do perfectly in a situation like this."

Sora disagreed, "Actually, Donald and I have been through a lot of situations where we have to find stuff, and a straight-forward approach has always worked for us."

"I have to disagree," the Hylian warrior opposed. "What you want to do is a perfectly good way to get ourselves killed. Riku, Donald, what do you think?"

The duck mage shrugged and said, "Sora's plan has never failed me before."

"Riku?"

Riku sighed and said, "Look guys, we haven't even reached Russia yet and we know nothing about this Dr. Mavo or the whereabouts of his lab, so I think it's kind of pointless to sit here and debate about what we're gonna do when we—"

"Straight-forward attacks always take the enemy off guard!" Sora continued, ignoring Riku.

"Please! That's what the enemy will be expecting! Don't you know anything about strategy and planning?" Link argued at a yell.

Riku inserted very casually, "Maaaaybe you two shouldn't be on the same mission. Do you want to consider joining the other group, Sora?"

"And let everyone else get seriously hurt or worse? Not happening," Sora refused.

Just then, Kairi skipped down the stairwell and slid into the kitchen. "What's up, boys?"

"Nothin' much," Donald answered. "Just fightin' over somethin' pointless."

"It's not pointless!" Link snapped. "It is vital to completing our mission!"

"So what is it?" Kairi asked.

Sora answered this time, "Our attack plan!"

"Attack plan? Already?"

"Yes, and I think a good tactful approach would be most effective," Link declared once again.

Once again, Sora rejected his plan. "That's a waste of time!"

"This is a waste of time," Riku muttered.

"Then let's fight for it!" challenged Link, ignoring Riku's comment.

"You're on!" Sora accepted. "Winner proves their plan is better!"

"Pfft," said Link. "Come on, then. Let's take this outside."

Following after the Hylian, Sora joked, "I hope outside is stealthy and tactful enough for you."

After the challengers had exited the house, Donald asked, "Should…should we go after them?"

With a sigh, Riku said, "Of course."

Once everyone had moved outside, Link suggested, "Since I don't feel like killing you, I recommend we use these wooden branches in lieu of our swords."

Stripping off his black vest, the Chosen One said, "Fine, any way you want it, elf-boy!"

"I see you've been hanging out with Daxter." Link picked up a skinny branch about as long as his arm and pointed it at Sora like an accusing finger.

Sora did the same; in his white tank-top, he tested the flimsiness of the branch. With satisfactory, he charged Link at full speed, swiping the branch at the Hylian's neck, only to completely hit air. Link had ducked and vaulted backwards, earning a glare from Sora, who only leapt after him.

"Hold still!" Sora yelled.

Link sidestepped and tripped up his opponent from behind; Sora fell backward into Link, who quickly grabbed him around the neck and forced the boy into a headlock.

Before anything else happened, Murray entered the ring with fight in his eyes. "Oh, snap! Are we havin' a free-for-all?"

Link tried to suppress the situation. "Um, no! That's quite alright, Mur—"

"BELLY-FLOP!" Murray shouted. Shortly after doing so, both the Hylian Hero and Chosen One were enshrouded in the hippo's dark shadow.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a dark cave of Russia's Sayan Mountains, the man in the checkered lab coat (from chapter eleven) stood in front of a giant metallic door. He removed a thin remote from his coat pocket and pressed down a blue button. The door slid down in front of him, giving him entry. As he walked in, he eyed the glowing green pod across the dark laboratory. It contained something or somebody in it. He flipped a switch and the lab's bright lights exceedingly illuminated the entire room, making every lab table, beaker, pair of tongs, and pod visible.

The doctor slipped on his glasses and sat down at a computer near the glowing pod. There was a small, fair-skinned creature floating in the pod's liquid in a crouched position. An air mask covering its mouth and nose was attached to a long tube in the pod, most likely to an air tank. The creature had long, black hair that waved all around, most likely female.

The doctor continued working at his computer, checking on the creature's development status. "Hmph," he said. "Looks like she's halfway done."

A deep voice behind him spoke, "Good. That's what I want to hear."

Dr. Mavo didn't bother to turn around as he replied, "I guess this is going to be a usual thing with you."

Draksin stepped forward and eyed the pod in the same manner Mavo had done. "Quite marvelous, Doctor. You work very fast. She looks just like the witch who did this to me." He pointed to the wounds above his eyebrow and on his cheekbone.

"Thanks, Sin. It is my specialty. She's almost done developing into the age you specified, but it's going to take time installing the false memories."

"I see," said Draksin.

Dr. Mavo chuckled. "So your plan was to clone her so she can join our little group, right?"

"No, Lusef, you are mistaken. We are going to use her as a weapon against the one called Crash Bandicoot."

"Interesting," Mavo replied. "So, it is HIM you want, and not the one that beat you?"

Draksin answered with a grin, "Yes. He may be less powerful than her, but I see his infinite potential with the right motivation."

Dr. Mavo opened up a separate window on the computer that collectively detailed the girl's strengths and statistics. He clicked on an energy meter count and a multicolored gauge appeared on-screen. He pointed to the largest portion of the gauge, which was green. "I noticed her maximum energy cap skyrockets past yours. It's no wonder she resisted you, my Lord."

"Tch," said Draksin with a sneer. "That will all change soon. Besides, she can't hold a candle to me in my other form."

"I imagine so," the doctor replied monotonously.

"Quick question, Doctor: what age is it as of right now?"

Mavo clicked back to the previous window. "Twelve and a half."

"Hmm…how long will it take to install the memories?"

"A little less than a week."

"…I'll be back. I smell a Precursor," Draksin announced before misting away.

* * *

In the midday skies above the mountains, Jeycko floated around, scanning the mountainous landscape.

"Darn it, Mavo, where have you hidden your little toyshop?" The fast moving precursor drifted forward, trying his hardest to sense the doctor's presence. Suddenly, he felt a horribly tainted amount of Mojo behind him, but that was immediately followed by a searing pain in his back, which sent him flying forward.

After regaining his bearings, he looked up with a startled expression to see Draksin Mefisto smiling down at him. "Hello, Jeycko."

"No—Draksin!" Jeycko stifled before the dark being moved at an incredible speed and grabbed his face. The Precursor of Twilight could feel Draksin's fingers burrowing into his blue face and blonde hair.

"So, what brings you to Russia?" Draksin asked casually. After getting no response from the struggling mystical being, he went on, "Well, I'm here because I'm looking for a rodent named Crash Bandicoot. Have you seen him?"

The Dark One repositioned his fingers so Jeycko could speak. "I—I don't know who you're talking about!"

Draksin squeezed harder, earning a pained yelp. "That's a shame. I wish you could've been more help to me." With his other hand, he raised it against the Precursor's abdomen and charged a purple palm-sized Mojo Blast, pushing Jeycko back a bit. "Go reunite with your father."

The blast shot from his hand and sent Jeycko flying across the cool skies, plummeting downward into the side of a mountain with a hefty explosion.

"Hmph." Draksin looked on at the smoking pit with a vengeful glare. "You're next, Orphco."

* * *

_1) If you recall back in Chapter 5, Orphco was explaining to Sly that some heroes rejected his plee for help because they were having psychological problems. And I know what you're thinkin': Where's Tails, Shadow, Rouge, Cream, and Cheese? This is a terrible story! You're a PHONY!_

_I swear, they're coming later. I don't like new-character-overload._

_Alright, since Aku Aku is nowhere to be seen and Roxas is on his flight back from E3, I have to do the bios MYSELF. Listen up, I'm gonna make this short, and I'm only gonna do this once. ONCE. _

Sonic the Hedgehog

This guy…oh wait, I forgot about the age and stuff.

**Age:** 16  
**Gender:** Male  
**Species:** Hedgehog

This guy is an anthropomorphic mammal-dude who wears big red shoes and runs around really fast. You see, he used to live in this ravaged world called Mobius, but his world and our world collided or something, and now he and his friends, enemies, and frenemies coexist with the rest of Earth's inhabitants. Oh, some important stuff! Lately, he's been having a recurring nightmare that's been sapping his sanity, and he thinks it relates to his unknown family. If he wins that Twisted Wipeout competition, he wants to wish for an explanation to his bad dreams. This speedy critter first appeared in _Sonic the Hedgehog, 1991._

Knuckles the Echidna

**Age:** 17  
**Gender:** Male  
**Species:** Echidna. Seriously, it's in his name.

Okay, so this red echidna can also run fast, but he specializes more in punching holes in stuff. Yeah, he's super strong, but not quite as fast as Sonic. He's a long time friend of Sonic's, though they tend to fight sometimes. What else, what else…oh yeah, he used to guard the precious stone known as the Master Emerald all by himself before he met Sonic. He continues to guard it, but with the help of friends of course. Knuckles first appeared in _Sonic the Hedgehog 3, 1994_. Alright, so Amy—crud, I forgot to introduce her…

Amy Rose

**Age: **13  
**Gender:** Female  
**Species:** Hedgehog

Alright, so Amy is another one of those hedgehogs, running around and takin' down the bad guys. To be precise, she usually spends her time running after her major love interest, Sonic. From what I've observed, it's only puppy love. She can be very reckless in crisis situations and likes dramatizing things that involve somewhat NO drama. Also, she carries around a hefty hammer called the Piko Piko Pikachu hammer. Just kidding, no Pikachu, but the hammer is big, red, and gold. Amy was first seen in _Sonic CD, 1993_.

_Finally, so on the next chap…shoot, I forgot about Dr. Mavo. I'll do my best to fluff this one up._

Dr. Lusef Petrovich Mavo

**Age:** ? ?  
**Gender:** Male  
**Species:** Human

In the eighteenth century of America, Lusef was a brilliant Russian scientist who mastered the study of cloning organisms, first by cloning a goat, then a horse, then an elephant, and so on. He did this all in secret until he was caught cloning a human being, which resulted in immediate arrest. He was charged with crimes against God and nature, and he was sentenced to death at the stake. Draksin appeared and rescued Mavo in the nick of time, giving him powerful abilities to lure him into his brotherhood of evil villains. After being Draksin's third inductee into the group, Mavo worked closely with his leader in conducting secret projects. Dr. Lusef Mavo wears black and white colors in a reversing pattern, even on the opposing halves of his hair. Since he lived in America for most of his life, he speaks with very little accent in his voice. If you've seen Batman Begins, then imagine the guy who plays Dr. Crane (otherwise known as Scarecrow) as Dr. Mavo. Yeah, so this evil scientist is a direct creation from _CadeXHybrid_, me of course!

_Whew, that was challenging. On the next chapter, Orphco recalls the pain of losing another close friend and his fateful battle with Draksin in the Twilight Realm. Later, Link and his team depart for Russia under Orphco's watchful eye, and Jak and his crew travel to Australia's Wipeout coliseum to get his entry number and start the qualifiers. _

_Tune in for __**Parting Ways**__._


	41. Parting Ways

Hm…violent chapters like these make me want to change the rating. Not yet. Also, in the summary, I stated the reason why I'm changing this story's location, mainly for obvious reasons. Seriously. I had no idea there was a Game X-overs section. That's perfect for this story! Right?

The only thing that concerns me about the move is that I won't have anything for Crash Bandicoot's main fic page. But hopefully, I can get through these two arcs so I can do my moovy, _**Uka Uka Reborn **_(changed from _**Uka Uka's Revenge**_). That's gonna be epic, trust me!

Let's get this chapter goin'…

Chapter 41: Parting Ways

Jeycko felt part of the blast burning through his cloak and into his blue skin as he raced toward the mountainside, but most of it seemed to be only getting absorbed by his silver Triforce necklace. Even though the blast wasn't burning a hole through him, he still knew a fiery death would meet him on the mountainside. With a pained grunt, he slid his hand between the burning ball of Mojo and his necklace and hurled it over his head, just inches away from the mountain's many jagged boulders. Unfortunately, Jeycko rammed his back onto one of those boulders, and the ensuing explosion detonated above him, quaking his vision.

"How could this get any worse…?" the pained Precursor asked aloud. It was then that he realized his numb body was tumbling down the mountainside like an old ragdoll, smacking up against boulders and trees on his violent descent.

Finally, Jeycko landed with a comical, yet sickening, thud. He lay motionless on the grassy ground.

* * *

"No…NO! It can't be!" Orphco screamed.

Glen, Gladdus, and Eurathaccus all stared at Orphco. They were all in the Twilight Realm's heavens, gathered in Orphco's sanctuary. The waterfalls behind him stopped streaming as he broke his meditative state.

"Orphco, what's the situation?" Eurathaccus asked in his militant manner.

"It's Jeycko…his life force is fading away!" Orphco said stressfully.

"WHAT?" Glen and Gladdus both screamed.

"I…I sense another life force in the same area. It's dark and twisted—like Draksin's." Orphco rubbed his forhead, thinking deeply. "He must have gotten to Jeycko. We need a plan…I will go after Jeycko. You three will go to Wumpa Island and keep a protectorate-watch over our heroes."

"Orphco, wait a second!" Glen halted. "What if he's waiting for you? We can't risk another casualty—there's only four of us now."

The bald Precursor looked down and sighed. "Maybe we shouldn't have gotten those heroes into this. Draksin…he's much stronger than I thought." Orphco closed his eyes and recounted the battle he had with Draksin in the Twilight Realm.

_Enter Flashback_

_Orphco flew at breakneck speeds above the smoldering villages of the Twilight Realm. Using telepathy, he communicated with an ally far across the war-torn landscape, "Hold on Royt, I'm coming! Just hold out a bit longer."_

_Suddenly, a giant red dragon erupted from the landscape and halted Orphco. "Where do ya think you're going, blue-boy?"_

"_OUT OF THE WAY!" Orphco yelled. He placed his hand up to Reiden's snout and a pulsating wave of air pushed the dragon away with tremendous force._

"_YOWZA!" Reiden shouted as he flew into a forest._

_Orphco continued flying until he noticed two floating figures off in the sky's distance. "There!"_

_A blonde-haired Precursor, who shared similar features with Jeycko, was having a standoff with Draksin in the air. Draksin had his arms crossed, staring at the Precursor with a deathly grin. The Precursor Royt, however, looked to be breathing hard and had a deep cut along his right arm. _

_Draksin smirked. "Pitiful."_

_Suddenly Orphco appeared on the scene. Royt greeted him, "Well you took your sweet time. How are the others?"_

"_Fine," the bald Precursor replied. "They're holding off that wolf-man."_

"_Yeah, well I hope he isn't as strong as this guy." _

_Orphco noticed that two other Precursors were missing. "Where are Tenshi and Kessenerus?"_

_Royt looked back at the Dark Maker floating five meters away. Solemnly, he answered, "He killed them."_

_Orphco glowered intensely at Draksin. "You…I thought we sealed you away a long time ago! What are you doing out of Oblivion?"_

"_Hehehe, you see…you cannot suppress a devil," was Draksin's reply. "As long as the dark sins of time continue to be engraved in history, I will always exist!"_

"_Enough talk!" Royt yelled shortly before charging at the dark being. Orphco did the same; they disappeared and reappeared on either side of Draksin, who retained his confident calmness. They aimed fists at each of Draksin's ears._

_Without looking, Draksin grappled both of the Precursor's fists and began spinning around like a mad top. He flicked both beings in opposite directions, aimed to the Twilight Realm's landscape. _

_With two crashes, the Precursors of Twilight found themselves face-down in the dirt. Instinctively, they jumped back to their feet and flew upwards, meeting each other and Draksin in the air again. _

"_New plan?" Royt asked. _

"_Sure, we just have to seal him away again," Orphco stated. "But that isn't going to be easy."_

_Draksin interrupted, "Or possible." Suddenly, a thin serpentine sword appeared in Draksin's hand from a dark mist. On the wicked hilt, a small, upside-down skull with fangs had been affixed to the base of the blade. He explained, "This, my friends, is the Soul Reaver. I borrowed it from a good friend of mine—"_

"_Kain!" Royt exclaimed in recognition. _

"_Yes, him. This sword is more powerful than any Keyblade, Precursor weaponry, or the Master Sword combined! Its sole purpose is to feed its immeasurable hunger for souls, and it brings destruction and chaos on the side. And now, I will end your lives with it." (1)_

_Misting away, Draksin reappeared behind an unsuspecting Orphco with the Soul Reaver held high. Mere inches away from his comrade, Royt quickly saw this impending strike and used his energy-push ability to thrust Orphco out of the way. The bald Precursor narrowly avoided Soul Reaver's wrath as he rolled away within the air._

_Frustrated he had wasted a perfect stroke of the dreadful blade, Draksin misted away again, but he appeared behind Royt this time. With a downward stab, he pierced through the blonde precursor's body with the demonic sword; it had penetrated his back and exited through his abdomen. _

"_Huagh!" Royt gagged in agony. _

"_ROYT, NO!" Orphco shouted. _

_Royt held back the pain as he said to Draksin, "I'll…I'll make sure you nev…never use this blade again!"_

_With a bewildered look, Draksin asked, "What? What do you mean by that?"_

_After coughing up a little blue blood, Royt put a hand against part of the blade that was exiting his body. "You'll see…"_

_Suddenly the Soul Reaver cracked, earning a horrified look from the Dark One. Draksin fought a losing battle as he tried pulling it out of the Precursor's dying body; Royt was somehow locking the blade inside him. Draksin commanded, "No—you fool! Stop what you're doing right NOW!"_

_Orphco watched with tension as Royt painfully replied, "I may not be able to destroy you along with this sword, but at least it's one less stigma in this universe!" He turned to Orphco and yelled, "Sorry buddy, but it's time for you to GO!" Royt charged another energy-push wave and pushed Orphco clear out of his way._

_Orphco protested as he flew away, "Wait, Royt, don't do this—!"_

_Royt waved to his friend and turned around to witness Draksin's total meltdown. The blue man said heroically, "There will always be a single hero to stop you. It's what the prophecy holds." _

_The brave Precursor briefly lit up a light shade of blue and detonated with a large blast radius. The sword completely shattered and Draksin was sent flying out from the smoke-filled explosion in the sky. He looked to be unconscious._

_End Flashback_

Orphco hated reliving the Twilight Realm's fall. Queen Midna and her forces had finally warded off Reiden and Isaac's attack minutes after Royt self-destructed, which is something the Precursors are not allowed to do.

And now Jeycko was gone. The heroes' chance of winning this war started to dwindle in Orphco's mind. Draksin just kept getting stronger…

* * *

Day 3 

Everyone had packed up their necessities and gone outside where Orphco and Eurathaccus were awaiting them. Everyone was wearing their casual attire, except for Jak and Crash. Jak had ditched his Wastelander outfit and decided to wear his racer jacket, white T, and blue pants for the occasion. (His Jak X attire.) Crash wore his yellow biker jacket and white T with the sword strapped around his torso.

The general stood with his hands behind his back and addressed the heroes, "At ease, soldiers. I hope you enjoyed your night's sleep. Orphco and I have some bad news about one of our Precursor comrades."

"What happened?" Sora asked.

"Jeycko, the one who brought you here, was killed yesterday."

"No way!" Sora responded.

"By who?" Sly Cooper asked.

Orphco chose his wording carefully, so as to NOT freak out or discourage them. "Draksin found and murdered him."

"Well, that was blunt," Coco remarked. "Wait—where was Jeycko when Draksin found him?"

Orphco couldn't stop Eurathaccus from answering them. "Sergeant Jeycko was patrolling the Sayan Mountains in Russia when Draksin ambushed him," the general informed.

Riku suddenly piped up, "And I'm guessing that's where we're going, right?"

The bald Precursor looked down. Behind his sunglasses, his black eyes reflected grief. "I'm sorry I have to do this to you. Whether or not Draksin is still lurking there is unknown. I don't know how he found Jeycko…but I will be with you guys the entire time in case he does show up and be ready to teleport you out of the area."

Link said, "Don't worry about us too much, Twili. I am ready to face Draksin anytime, anywhere."

Sora wasn't much for being a coward. He had bravely fought tons of unique foes before, but if there was anything he feared, it was losing his friends. That Dr. Mavo guy didn't sound so tough to him, but if they were to run into that Draksin demon, he feared the tolls would start counting. Orphco must have noticed Sora's anxiety.

"Sora, it's okay. I'll do my best to make sure none of your friends are harmed."

Suddenly, all heads turned to the boy, who began to look confused.

Sora responded, "What the – how did you know what I was thinking?"

Orphco explained, "We didn't tell you before because we thought you wouldn't trust us, but we can read your minds."

Eurathaccus tapped an imaginary watch on his wrist. "We don't have much time, Orphco."

After receiving a nod from his Precursor comrade, the general continued, "All of those who are entering the race, please stand behind me! The others get behind Sergeant Orphco."

Jak and Daxter, Keira, Mario, Goofy, Crash, Coco, Ratchet and Clank, and Bentley all treaded past the general. Link lead Crunch, Donald, Riku, Kairi, Sora, Murray, Aku Aku, and Sly Cooper behind Orphco.

Link declared, "Ready to depart, Orphco."

After a few waves and bids of luck, both Precursors readied themselves to teleport. Suddenly, Mario asked, "What's goin' on? Are they takin' us to an—?"

The two groups of heroes disappeared in great blazes of light, leaving the island.

* * *

"—airport?" Mario finished abruptly. The world around him had changed from a scenic island to an urban area in front of a large coliseum. The structure spanned out like a bowl and had many people, both human and anthropomorphic animals alike.

Standing in front of the coliseum's entrance, the general stated, "No time like the present, maggots!" He started marching in; everyone followed. The other Australian spectators gave the uncanny group odd stares.

As the group of heroes walked through the entry gates, Mario asked bluntly, "So…when were you mooks gonna tell me that these blue people can TELEPORT?"

Jak and co. walked into the coliseum's vast lobby full of wandering people. There were TV monitors hooked up to the walls for everyone to see the contenders' trials. Up ahead of them were entry booths; each had long lines of excited people.

"Aw, MAN! This is gonna take forever!" Coco complained.

Bentley noticed a few dingo-technicians stroll through an 'Employees Only' door. He looked over to Crash Bandicoot, who was looking at the squiggly line in his eye again. "Crash, listen carefully. I have a job for you."

Crash blinked _(Nooooo…!)_ and started paying Bentley some attention. "Yeah, whatcha got?"

"I need you to acquire two of those technicians' outfits, but try not to attract too much attention from anyone else here."

Crash watched as the last technician strolled through the door. "Sounds easy. I'll be sure to ask politely!"

Bentley smacked his (own) forehead. "No, no, Crash – I want you to 'acquire' an outfit for each of us. Know what I mean now?"

After a few seconds of blank staring, Crash asked, "Ask rudely?"

"No – _acquire."_

Ratchet intervened, "He means STEAL them!"

"Oh," said Crash. "I'm on it."

As the bandicoot slunk to a wall and slid through the door, Jak idly stood in line with Daxter perched on his shoulder. He turned to Keira and suggested, "Why don't you and the others go check this place out. Looks like I'll be in this line for awhile."

"Sounds good. We'll meet back with you in a bit, babe," Keira said before leaning in to give Jak a kiss.

Before their lips met, Daxter belched loudly and shouted, "MAN, breakfast was good this morning!"

The moment having been ruined, Keira just rolled her eyes and said to everyone else, "C'mon, guys. Let's go look around this huge place. We'll meet back with Jak in a bit."

Bentley looked back at the 'Employees Only' only door. "I'll wait here for Crash," he said.

The three technicians were walking down a hallway filled with steam pipes and a silent bandicoot in pursuit. One of the dingoes stopped and said in a thick Aussie accent, "Do you hear something, mates?"

All three turned around to spot Crash doing some kind of Pink-Panther dance. Another dingo asked, "Who the heck's this moron?"

In Crash's mind, he was invisible. He tip-toed closer to the first dingo, making his own theme music with his mouth. Very awkwardly, he raised both of his hands on either side of the dingo-technician's head and made a voodoo noise.

The technician stared at the bandicoot with a freaked out look. Finally, Crash broke his invisibility by firmly clapping both of his hands on the dingo's face.

"AAH!" he yelled before angrily getting into a fighting stance. The other two dingoes started laughing hysterically.

Crash laughed as well and said, "My friend, you've just been slapped in the face."

The angry dog spat, "Of course you just slapped me—!"

"—You've just been slapped in the face."

"And now I'm gonna kick your…wait."

Crash repeated himself for the last time, "You've just been slapped in the face. There are hidden cameras over there, and there, and right here!" He pointed to random directions in the hallway. "Smile, there's one right there, too!"

The three dingoes started laughing again and stupidly waved to an empty spot on the wall. The dingo who was slapped exclaimed, "I can't believe I'm on TV! I LOVE this show!"

Crash whispered, "Then you'll love this, too…"

The bandicoot grabbed the dingo's shoulders and reeled his knee into the canine's gut, following up with an uppercut to the jaw. He fell to the floor with a low thud. The other two dingoes looked EXTREMELY confused.

Crash jumped and hung on a pipe. He swung his foot across the faces of the remaining dingoes, instantly knocking them out cold.

The victorious bandicoot looked down at the dazed technicians. "Don't take this the wrong way, but…I'm gonna have to strip you guys."

* * *

Link and his team appeared near a vast body of water alongside Orphco. Crunch looked up at the cloudy skies and sighed, "Another day, another brawl in the mountains."

"This is the area Jeycko was killed yesterday," stated Orphco. "I infer that Draksin killed him because he was getting too close to Mavo's secret lab. If we stay low to the ground and out of sight, we should be safe from Draksin."

Sly looked up at the adjacent mountain and noticed a wide, intimidating crater. "Whoa…I guess that's what Draksin did to Jeycko."

Everyone followed his gaze; Donald screamed, "WAK!"

Link blinked and turned to his group. "Best if we got started."

Sora asked, "Where should we start?"

"We should start LOOKING for the lab," Link said firmly.

"Did you forget it was HIDDEN? We need a better plan than just hounding around the mountains for a lab that's probably underground."

Link frowned. "So what do you suggest, we get a shovel and dig?"

"No, I SUGGEST we try and draw out Mavo's attention so he can lead us to his lab," Sora said with his arms crossed and a satisfied expression.

Aku Aku commended, "That's actually not a bad plan, Sora."

"It's a whole lot better than blindly hiking around the mountains," The Murray added.

Link protested, "Have you forgotten what might happen if we 'get someone's attention'? Draksin could be nearby."

"And we'll be ready for him," Sora declared.

Link stared wide-eyed as everyone began to nod in agreement. He turned to Orphco and asked, "Do you agree with their strategy?"

Blankly, Orphco looked up into the sky. He thought about the friends and family probably awaiting their heroes' return. It would be unfair of him to spring such pain upon them. He solemnly answered, "I _detest_ that strategy."

Sora stumbled, "Huh?"

"My job is to make sure that you all survive, and by the goddesses, I will try my hardest. I strongly advise you all go with Link's strategy."

To Sora's annoyance, Link smirked. "Let's march everyone."

* * *

Back at the Coliseum, Keira, Coco, Ratchet, Clank, Goofy, and Mario were all checking out the Simulator-Section. It was a long and wide hall filled with mountable arcade cars stationed along the walls. They were just like any other fun-rides you'd find in an arcade, complete with a plasma screen monitor to show the simulator's graphics.

While the five were amusedly checking out the simulators, Mario was at a nearby phone booth chatting with his fiancé. "I'm sorry baby, but I gotta do this! If we win, I'll bring back enough money to buy the perfect wedding you've always—can ya stop yelling?"

He slowly pulled the phone away from his ear and hooked it on the booth's receiver, all while an angry barking noise resounded from it. Mario patted the phone like it was a vicious dog that had just fallen asleep.

Back at the entry booths' lines, Jak and Daxter were still waiting. They were about halfway through and halfway asleep. Daxter perked up as he noticed yet another human pass by, "Look, Jak. There's another one!"

Jak took notice and responded, "I'm startin' to think this whole world is full of small…circle-eared people." Duh.

Suddenly, from the door Crash had previously entered to trick and take down the technicians, Crash and Bentley emerged in their gray, technician's outfits, each with tool belts around their waists. Crash was holding a black tool box and an extra outfit could be seen in it. On Crash's chest was the name Mikey and on Bentley's was Tim.

The two technicians walked past the entry booths' long lines and caught up with Keira and the others.

"How's it goin', guys?" Crash greeted.

Ratchet turned and laughed, "Whoa, tool-time."

"I think it looks snazzy," said the bandicoot, tugging his collar.

Bentley urged, "We're gonna need to borrow you, Ratchet and Clank."

Crash held up the tool box, "Look! We brought you an extra outfit."

"Sweet, let's go do this!" the Lombax cheered while taking the tech uniform. "C'mon, Clank."

"Right behind you," replied Clank. The turtle, bandicoot, Lombax, and mini-bot began to depart.

Goofy called after them rather loudly, "Good luck with the mission, fellas!"

Keira and Coco gave him crazed looks; the four heroes up ahead also turned around to give Goofy a, "Could you be any louder?" glare.

After a few seconds, Goofy covered his mouth and said, "Oops, sorry!"

After deducting that no one had noticed, everyone went on with their "mission." Just then, Mario showed up with a sheepish expression. He scratched the back of head and asked, "Hey, uh…were you guys plannin' on winning this competition? Cuz I did just sorta promise Peaches that we would win and bring home cash…"

Coco giggled and said, "Bad idea."

"Yeah, we were only planning on staying in the race long enough to take Arden down," Keira explained.

"You don't understand," Mario began, fear in his eyes. "My fiancé's a monster when she's angry!"

Goofy suggested, "Well maybe when this is over, we can go and apologize to Peaches so she'll believe ya!"

Mario seemed to regain his composure. "Thanks, Goof, that…that actually puts my mind at ease…"

* * *

"This is what I'ma do till it's over, till it's over, and it's far from over!" Darn. Been playing that in my head since the legendary BET awards last sunday. I told myself not to watch it, but NO...

1) The Soul Reaver is the choice weapon Kain and Raziel use in their respective _Blood Omen_ and _The Legacy of Kain_ games. It's a vampiric sword that feeds on the souls of the living…until Royt broke it. Ain't I a stinker?

Royt

**Age**: 725 (Deceased)  
**Gender**: Male  
**Species**: (Precursor) Twili

Jeycko's father was once a peaceful god of the Twilight Realm who dwelled in its heavens, just like Orphco and the others, but one day his Realm was attacked by Draksin, Reiden, and Isaac, forcing him and his brethren to descend down and protect the Twili people. Royt committed an act of sacrifice to heavily wound Draksin, but resulted in his own death. He was one of three Precursors to fall to the hands of Draksin and his crew. Royt is an O.C. of _CadeXHybrid_.

_In the next chapter of Twilight's Precursors, Link and his group aimlessly search the mountains for Mavo's laboratory, and Jak finally obtains his entry number! But he will have to wait his turn…or will he? Due to the preliminary's overly dangerous course and lack of moderation, many of the hopeful contenders are instantly discouraged and scared off at the first or second casualty. Meanwhile, Orphco and Link relent after a while of fruitless searching and go with Sora's strategy to get a better lead on Mavo's location. Also, there will be another futuristic intermission…_

_Stay on the edge of your slushy-stained seats for __**Dangerous Qualifier!**_

_Man, Drake's song "Over" is REALLY stuck in my head…_


	42. Dangerous Qualifier

Chapter 42: Dangerous Qualifier

Sometime in the near future…about a week after the last intermission…

Coco yawned as she woke up from her midday nap. She noticed she had been having A LOT of those naps ever since her son was born. She would sleep right along with him, worn out from having to take care of the baby boy on most of her time. But still, her spouse had returned home and was actually pitching in a little, and that made her happy.

The bandicootess had woken up in the rocking chair of the baby's room again. It seemed that that chair would be her official spot to plop down on when she was too tired to travel out of the room, though the hall, down the elevator, and to her study.

Coco stretched her arms and kicked the blanket off of her body, emerging from her curled up position. She looked over to her son's crib to notice him standing up, already awake with pacifier in-mouth. He had his hands on the crib's high rails, silently watching his mother wake up. He smiled when she turned to him, and she smiled back.

"Hey, baby!" Coco greeted. She stood up and walked over to her son, kissing him on his forehead right between two green locks of hair. Coco asked, "How was your nap…Xavier? Do you like that name? How about Cole or Travis?"

"Up!" the little boy shrieked after spitting out his pacifier, throwing his arms out.

"Not really much of a conversationalist, are you?" Coco picked up her nameless son and tucked his head under her neck. She walked out of the baby's room and down the hallway where she heard laughing. She rounded a corner and found the baby's uncle talking on a cellular phone.

"Oh wait, Crunch, Coco's awake right now, gotta go—you're awake, Coco!" Crash observed. "Man, you sleep more than little Sonny-Boy, here! 'How ya doin', buddy?"

Crash made a face and his nephew cracked a smile and giggled. Coco pouted and said, "I told you to quit doing that, or he'll start making faces, too."

"Oh, right, I forgot. You want 'intelligent children'. So when's he comin' over to my house to play with his cousin-Cristi?"

Coco answered, "You can take him in a few minutes. Is Nicky home yet?"

"Nope, haven't seen him," said Crash, looking to the side. "You know, you two should really hurry up and give this kid a name. I was thinking you should try names that start with a 'C.' You know, bandicoot family tradition."

Coco retorted indifferently, "Dad's name didn't start with a 'C'. Neither did Mom's."

"Hers started with a 'K', but that's close enough. Look, I just want junior to have a name in this world. You know he's gonna start thinking on his own, soon. Remember? Our kind develop really fast. Cristi can already carry on small conversations, just like Setto could when he was her age."

The two siblings in their (really) early twenties carried their conversation into the elevator. Coco pressed the down button and said rather sternly, "I know that already, okay?"

Crash gave her a hurt look as they descended downward. "Um…are you stressed out?"

Coco sighed. "No…well, a little. It's mostly because…ah, never mind."

Crash urged, "No, c'mon, tell me."

The blonde bandicootess sighed again, earning a curious glance from her son. The baby reached up and touched her chin, trying to pull her mouth open. Coco whispered, "Stoppit, sweetie. That hurts mommy." She looked over and noticed that Crash was still waiting for a response. "Okay, okay…"

Crash's ears flicked, indicating that he was listening. Coco continued, "Well…I guess I'm just a little jealous of you and Naomi."

The bandicoot shut his eyes, crossed arms, and smirked. "Is that all, Coco?"

Coco didn't take that very well. Crossly, she replied, "YES! That's absolutely all. Nothing important, of course."

Crash quickly tried to stabilize the situation. "No, I didn't say it wasn't important. It's just little, that's all."

Coco sadly looked off to the side as she said, "It's just that you and Naomi seem to have this perfect, dream relationship with a happy kid. That's something I've always wanted for myself…I guess it's a little selfish."

The elevator began to slow down. "It's alright, Sis. Just give it some time, and you three will be happier than ever."

The doors slid open, revealing the foyer of Coco's work building. There were many of her business workers lounging around on their lunch break, but no sign of her spouse.

"Dang it," muttered Coco. "Sorry, I thought Nicky would've been down here." Coco detached the baby from her arms and held him out to Crash. "Here, I guess you can take him off my hands, now."

Crash joyously took the green-haired baby from his sister. "Thanks, Sis. We're gonna have tons of fun, right Junior?"

Coco sighed once more. "We really need to find a name for him. Anyway, bring him back alive, okay?"

Crash laughed and nuzzled his nose with the baby boy. He assured, "Relax, Coco, I know what I'm doing, here!"

Coco leaned in and kissed her son's pointy ear. "Mommy loves you, sweetie." The bandicootess removed a black, wooly beanie from her back pocket and slid it over the baby's head. It pushed some of his green locks of hair down over his eyes. "Make sure he wears this," Coco instructed. "It's bright and sunny outside, and I don't want his head to get sunburned."

Crash careened his head to the side a bit. "Heck, I figure that's kinda impossible with all that hair on his head. Don't you think he needs a haircut?"

On their way to the building's front exit, Coco said sternly, "His hair is beautiful, and I'm not cutting it."

"Oh, geez…"

Outside of the building, Coco hugged her brother and waved him off. Then, very casually, Crash levitated up in the air with his nephew in his arms. Oddly, Coco didn't take this as a weird or freaky act, almost as if she'd seen this many times before. Her brother and her son flew off in Wumpa Island's direction, disappearing in the distance.

* * *

Back in the present, Aku Aku did his best to scan for evil presences, but to no avail. The entire group had been hiking around the mountains near Lake Baikal, aimlessly searching for any sign of a laboratory. Sly Cooper stopped walking and crossed his arms. He shook his head, saying, "Guys, I feel like this could go on forever. Link, Orphco, we have to go with Sora's plan or we'll be getting nowhere."

Link turned around and gave the raccoon an irritated look. "You too?"

Crunch agreed, "Yeah, this bites."

"Thank you!" Sora exploded with contempt.

Sly continued, "Link, weren't you just telling Sora the other day about how your strategy of tactfulness is superior?"

Link nodded stubbornly, "Yes, so?"

"Well, I'm sure we can still stay tactful while we draw Mavo out of hiding. All we have to do is find a way to get his attention and stay hidden. Know what I mean?"

Orphco sighed and said, "Hm. That plan is starting to sound sensible."

Sora pumped his fist, "Ha! My plan is more sensible!"

Link flicked his hand at him. "Please, your plan is based off of my tactfulness idea, which I came up with first!"

"You can't let me win…"

Orphco interjected, "If anyone's going to draw the attention of Mavo, it's going to be me."

Crunch asked, "Whoa, all by yourself? That seems kinda risky."

"I'm willing to take that risk," Orphco replied. "Not right now, however. I want to find a safe vantage point for you all." He pointed up to a small cabin located on a higher plateau of the mountain. "That shack looks safe."

Although Link had his doubts, he followed closely behind. With a sarcastic tone, he thought out loud, "Maybe the lab's in there."

* * *

"NEXT!" the clerk yelled.

Jak and Daxter shook themselves awake and walked forward to the front of the line, where they met up with a small office-shaped booth complete with a computer and large monitor.

The Australian man at the booth requested in a tired voice, "Region, please."

Jak stumbled, "What?"

"The name of the region you're coming from, please."

Jak replied, "We came from an island not far from here. Does that count?"

"The NAME of the island please."

Suddenly, Daxter took it upon himself to antagonize the man, "HEY! No need to have an attitude, bub!"

The man almost looked startled, seeming to just notice the furry animal perched on Jak's soldier. "Streuth! You lousy puppet-masters. Sir, what is the NAME of the island where you signed your name on a kiosk?"

"Uh…Wumpa Island," Jak replied, cutting Daxter off.

"Thanks, almighty…" the man mumbled as typed in the island's name on the computer. Only one unit with one name popped up in a separate window. "Name, please."

"Mar."

"Well, that was easy." The clerk printed out a rectangular sheet of paper with black numbers and, before handing it to Jak, he pushed a clipboard and pen in his face. "Please sign this legal waiver."

Jak took it and skimmed down to the bottom of the paper with his finger, where he found the line to sign his name. Just as he was about to release ink onto the line, Daxter snatched the clipboard from his hands. "Hey!" Jak yelled in protest.

From his friend's shoulder, Daxter jumped down onto the booth's counter and looked the waiver over. "Let's see…it's very important to read these things, _Mar_."

"Dax, just give me the waiver."

Observing the puppet as it walked and talked, the clerk decided to reach into the adjacent drawer for his eye drops. Meanwhile, Daxter had begun reading the waiver out loud like a fast-talking sports commentator.

"The Wipeout Corporation © reserves the right to nullify any legal advance, appeal, or subpoena from any third or first party members in every intention possible. The below participant has reviewed and complied with the rules and regulations and will be disqualified if the aforementioned guidelines are violated to the fullest or broadest intention. This includes cheating, sabotage, blackmail, murder, libel, torture, slander, and performance enhancers." Daxter inhaled. "No participant shall be discriminated against by race, creed, religion, gender, or ethnicity from first or third party members in every intention possible or from other participants. If the below participant retains injuries, sickness, or an untimely death—DEATH?—from the trademark Twisted Wipeout competition, which is funded by Wipeout Corporation ©, then said participant knows any legal advance on said company will be nullified by this document."

Jak shook himself awake. "Now can I sign it?"

"Wow," staggered Daxter. "There's not a whole lot of moderation in this thing. They're saying we could die!"

Jak snatched back the clipboard and scribbled his undercover name on the line. "Doesn't matter." He turned to the clerk guy, who was currently liquefying his eyes. "Do you need to see any license and registration?"

"No sir, now please step aside so I may tend to the other customers."

After Jak and Daxter walked away from the long line with their entry number in-hand, Jak muttered to his ottsel friend in agreement, "You're right, Dax. They didn't even ask for a license or anything. It's almost as if they WANT people to get seriously hurt."

"If ya think about it, that only makes sense, seeing as how that Calypso-person is one of the bad guys," Daxter concurred.

Back with the rest of Jak's "pit crew," Keira, Coco, Goofy, and Mario had decided to depart from the Simulator-Section and check out the terrarium. In the great dome-shaped, glass room, there was a great deal of plant wildlife. Atop the dome were many pipelines, most likely for hydration purposes. Through the glass, the sun's rays shined through upon the many plants. Speaking of those plants, there were even some freaky ones that stood upright, breathed, and had sharp teeth.

The group of four watched the plants in wonder from a high-up balcony; Keira, Coco, and Goofy leaned over the safety rails, trying to get as close to the biting plants as they could.

"A hi-yuck! I wonder if they like to eat peanuts!" Goofy thought out loud.

While he fished around for a peanut in his paper bug, Coco gazed at the "No Feeding the Plants" sign behind him. "Wait, Goofy, I don't think that's a good idea."

Too late; the dog-man had already dropped a peanut into the terrarium's depths where a plant scooped it up with its mouth. Goofy leaned far over the rail. "Did the little feller eat it?"

Apparently, not all the way. Accompanied by a spitting noise, the same peanut was projected upwards and hit the court knight square in the nose.

Keira and Coco laughed heartily. Mario, however, just rolled his glazed blue eyes and went back to casually leaning on the wall. It was then that Jak and Daxter arrived on cue.

"Hey, guys. We finally got our entry number," Jak informed. "We need to look for some lobby to wait in."

"Finally," said Coco. "What number are you?"

Jak read, "…One thousand sixty-nine."

Mario stated blandly, "I'm rentin' a hotel. I saw it across the street." With that, he turned and left the heroes, weaving his short and stocky body through the crowds of people.

Meanwhile, back with Crash, Ratchet, Clank, and Bentley, the trio was observing a super-control panel of sorts in a brightly lit, closed off control room. There were many flashing, multicolored knobs and switches (much like you would see on roller coaster's control panel).

"Sweet!" Bentley exclaimed. "Looks like we found the track's controls."

"Do not celebrate just yet, Bentley," Clank informed. "Two keys are required to operate this panel."

Crash gasped and widened his eyes in astonishment. "I knew these keys would be useful…!"

"Do you have them?" Ratchet asked.

Crash thought back and remembered a ring with two bronze keys clanging on the floor when he sky-kicked the two technician dingoes across the face. At first, he thought it was only money falling out of their pockets, but on closer inspection, he discovered that it was keys. Crash figured they were keys to a secret room or something like that, so he had taken them.

Crash drew the keys from his uniform's shirt pocket and handed them to Bentley, who gladly took them and said, "Great, now let's get acquainted with this control system."

* * *

"Hello?" Crunch called loudly as he pounded the cabin's doors. "Anybody home?"

Crunch started knocking louder and harder, which inadvertently caused him to break down the wooden door. "Oops." He sheepishly turned to the rest of his group and said, "Uh…breaking and entering is a serious crime!"

"Too late," Sly Cooper commented before strolling inward. The others followed suit.

Orphco began, "Well…let's hope whoever lives here isn't hostile to travelers."

The mountaineering heroes observed the cabin's interior. It consisted of one window on each wall, save the wall that held the door. There were two bunk beds in the corners, a lone sink on the wall, and an overturned wooden chair in the middle of the floor.

"There ain't much in here," Murray remarked. "Who the heck could live in this shack?"

"I don't know," Aku Aku shrugged (sort of). "I hope he likes visitors. We might be staying here if he does."

Riku must've noticed the sink because he clapped his hand to his forehead and said, "Crud…I left my toothbrush."

"Good work, Riku," Sora teased.

Orphco overheard. "Don't worry, Riku. I shall go back and get it for you. Where is it?"

"Well, I left it on these rocks by the waterfall behind the house."

"Which rocks?"

"The ones that…um…are by the waterfall…?"

The Precursor of Twilight sighed. "Never mind. Just concentrate on where you left it, please."

Riku closed his eyes. Orphco looked into the silver-haired teen's mind and saw mental images of three toothbrushes laid out onto a couple of rocks near the pond. One toothbrush was green, another was white, and the last one was red and slightly bigger than the rest.

While Orphco was reading Riku's mind, Murray and Kairi were looking quite embarrassed. Sora and Sly quickly noticed.

"Alright, you two, what's the joke?" Sly asked, sounding authoritative.

"Well…" Kairi began, but was cut off by Orphco.

"Hm…I see two other toothbrushes. Why is that?"

Sora snickered, "I think we found our culprits."

Orphco sighed in slight frustration. "Anyone else?" After getting no positive response, he briefly illuminated the room and teleported out of the cabin.

* * *

The Precursor wasted no time in grabbing the toothbrushes and quickly began readying himself to teleport. He needed only a second more…until a female's voice shouted, "FREEZE!"

With his concentration thrown off, Orphco turned around to meet Inspector Carmelita Montoya Fox aiming her shock blaster at him. _Uh-oh, the fox woman!_

Standing on a large rock, Carmelita began to read Orphco his "rights." Just kidding, she's off duty. She shouted, "Don't think I don't remember a blue-skinned man driving a certain getaway limo back in Paris!"

"I am sorry, ma'am, but I do not have time to waste on you!"

"But I have time to waste on you," Carmelita countered. She pulled the trigger, and the next thing Orphco knew, he was face-down in Wumpa Island's grass.

* * *

Jak and the others (minus Mario) were waiting in the coliseum's vast stadium full of restless people. This was an open-roof coliseum, giving way to the afternoon's bright daylight. It was finally minutes until the preliminary races would start; in the coliseum's wide arena were five generically designed airships lined up next to each other. In the meantime, Jak was having a hard time figuring out where the racetrack was.

Suddenly, a floating Jumbo-Tron flickered to life. On its four screens, another video message from the sorceress Calypso played. In her usual low and silky tone, she announced, "Hello denizens of Earth. By now you have probably been waiting for an ample amount of time, and I thank you for your patience. And don't worry about waiting your turn." She suddenly held a devilishly sadistic expression. "You won't need to wait behind as many people as you think. Without any further ado, I would like to formally start the preliminary rounds for the Twisted Wipeout competition. And remember, the fastest times will be chosen."

From his seat next to him, Daxter looked at Jak nervously and asked, "What do ya think she meant by that?"

An announcer's voice rang throughout the stadium, "Will racers one through five please escort themselves to the docks."

After a while, the five racers had journeyed down to the five airships in the center of the coliseum, waving to every spectator as camera flashes fired off every split second. Several ushers had joined the contenders to help them in the vehicles' cockpits.

Jak said to no one in particular, "I still don't see where these guys are gonna be able to race around. This whole thing better not be a racing simulator."

Goofy suggested, "Maybe they fly up in the air and race around the world?"

"Seems unlikely," Coco countered. "They probably go out and race in the street or something."

It turned out that they were all wrong; when the green light flashed to life, metal compartments from underneath each hovercraft opened up like trapdoors and dropped each ship into their depths. TV-billboards connected to poles lodged in random places in the stadium showed off a close up view of the contenders.

The contenders were lined up at a starting line of sorts inside a brightly lit cavern. There were many floating neon lights equipped with cameras wandering the bowels of the cave, lighting up the metallic track.

After the countdown, the airships took off down the track at high speeds. Keira shrieked, "WHOA! Should they be going so fast in such a cramped space?"

"No," Jak uttered.

All eyes were fixated on the nearest billboard screen, excited cheers from the crowd accompanying them. Two of the five racers were neck-and-neck as they drove off a ramp and descended deeper into the cavern and gracefully landed into a wide hole in the opposite wall. Racers three and four also completed the jump, but racer five…was not so lucky.

The cheers of excitement turned into screams of horror as the last place racer slammed into the wall a few meters away from the hole, exploding on impact.

"Oh, my god!" Coco screamed. "Is he okay?"

Suddenly, the remains of the airship lying on the ground in a heap exploded AGAIN.

"Nope," Daxter plainly answered.

The camera feed switched to the first and second placemen, who were nearing a few of the built-in obstacles. These included giant metal spikes shooting up from the track and natural stalactites jutting down from the ceiling. First placeman adeptly swerved around three of those metal spikes from the track, followed by second placeman, but unfortunately met his fiery end at one of the stalactites. This caused racer two to swerve around and crash into racer one's burnt vehicle, flipping him over into a wall.

"This is insane," Jak proclaimed.

Many people in the audience began screaming louder as racer three hit a spike and spun out of control, exploding into the cave's wall. As for racer four, he managed to speed past all the spikes and debris, but he was going entirely too fast to complete the next turn and ricocheted off the track wall. With a beacon of hope, he regained control of the vehicle and completed a large jump across another chasm, landing perfectly.

Cheerily, Goofy predicted, "Hey, he could make it! Oops, spoke too soon." Indeed, the court knight had spoken too soon; racer four hit a natural stalagmite and spun off of the track, into another chasm.

The announcer came over the intercom again, this time sounding a bit fearful, "Um…it seems all contenders have been eliminated. Geez, can somebody get the medic droids down there? So…will, uh, racers six through ten please escort themselves to the docks?"

THAT obviously wasn't anybody's goal. The coliseum's inhabitants were all packing up and leaving through the many doors. Some were even running as they shouted:

"C'mon, mates, let's get the heck outta here!"

"I thought these were fun rides…!"

"This is a madhouse!"

"Not on my mother's life am I ever gonna do this!"

"All five of them just died. DIED!"

"Definitely NOT worth it!"

Jak, Keira, Coco, Daxter, and Goofy sat silently and watched as many people bounded out the stadium. Although not everyone had left, they were still glad not many other people were going to die that day…

Meanwhile, Crash, Ratchet, Clank, and Bentley had been letting the controls operate themselves. However, the "medic droids" were something they had to distribute manually. Crash piped up solemnly, "I…kinda feel guilty for letting all five of those guys wreck like that."

"Sorry, Crash," said Bentley. "Maybe the robots will be able to salvage their bodies before they die, but until then, we can only operate the controls when Jak goes up."

On the control panel's screen, there were many different camera feeds displayed at once, showing the different sections of the underground racetrack. Ratchet blankly stared at the wreckage on the screen and asked, "Um…are we supposed to doing something important right now?"

"Maybe setting up more aircrafts for the next competitors is what we need to do," Clank suggested. "But how do we do that?"

"Found it," Bentley responded, pulling a green lever down. "I sure hope everyone else was smart enough to abandon the competition."

Back in the stadium, the announcer guy was scrolling through the list. "Number seventy-eight? Seventy nine? Tell ya what: anyone else still idiotic enough to try this death-trap, please line up down here next to the docks."

A handful of people in Jak's section stood up to walk down the stairways and onto the field. Jak and Daxter turned to the other three, the former of whom saying, "Well, wish us luck. Speaking of 'luck'…do any of you if Bentley accomplished that mission…?

Reading a text message, Coco assured him, "Yeah, Crash says they found the control room half an hour ago."

"Good. Great. A _less_ chance of dying," Daxter bleakly observed.

The Dynamic Duo journeyed past all of the empty seats and down to the center of the coliseum. There, they met up with thirty or thirty five other brave contenders, who were all nervous young men.

Jak and Daxter didn't have to wait in line for as long as they had thought; the next five had chickened out at the last second, running far away from the arena; one of the next drivers threw up before he got in the vehicle, causing a chain reaction with the other four racers and a few people in line. One (male) person excused himself from the race because he was carrying a baby. Another person declared they're better off getting a real job and promptly left.

The next thing they knew, the duo had reached the front of the line without a single person racing. Daxter cursed at this.

"Crap. I needed a little more time to pray."

Jak was competing against only one other person, and he appeared to be SERIOUSLY intoxicated. Wearing a black biker's jacket, the pink hippopotamus swayed back and forth a bit, clutching a silver canteen. He mumbled to himself, "I'll show those morons…replacing me like that…"

"What's his deal?" Jak whispered to Daxter, who shrugged as a response.

A few ushers helped the duo into the cockpit of the hovercraft, sealing it shut once tightly fastened in. The small ship's interior was cozy to Jak; he had room to stretch his arms and legs even with Daxter perched on his shoulder. One thing Jak noticed was the immediate similarity to the mechanical hover-ships in the Simulator room. Practicing on those would've probably helped out A LOT.

Just when he thought he was at major disadvantage, a robotic female voice started giving him a short tutorial. "Good afternoon, contender. To accelerate forward, press down on the right pedal. To brake, press down on the left pedal."

"Check, and check," Daxter affirmed as he happily went along with the tutorial.

"Use the steering wheel to turn. Press on the brake and turn the steering wheel to commit a heavy turn. Tutorial completed."

"That was it?" complained the ottsel. "What about the ejector seat? HOW DO WE DO THAT?"

"Relax, Dax," Jak said, pointing out their chance of success. "This pink guy seems way too drunk to be a challenge against us, and we've got Bentley helping us out. Did I mention I'm an expert racer? All I need to do is keep the ship on the track and we should be A-O.K., Dax."

"Alright, Jak I trust you…a little."

The two ships prepared to dock; the trapdoor compartment opened up, and the ships slowly descended downward into the neon lit cavern, awaiting the race track's countdown.

"Three…"

Jak shot a quick look at the other driver, who seemed to be nodding off.

"Two…"

Daxter said one more prayer before throwing up his arms as if he were on a stationary roller coaster.

"One…"

Jak adjusted the goggles on his forehead as a competitive grin crept on his face.

"Go!"

* * *

Yippy kye yay! It's game time, alright. Jak and Daxter have started the first round of the preliminary races, and they couldn't be any happier to be one step closer to the Twisted Wipeout finals. A step closer indeed…

Also, since Orphco is incapacitated (he got totally owned), the fate of our mountaineering heroes has suddenly been skewed. How will team leader Link react to the precursor's sudden disappearance? To begin with, he's gonna tour his group into a nearby town to purchase more toothbrushes.

Meanwhile, our racers will undoubtedly complete the first preliminary round with the help of Crash, Ratchet, Bentley, and Clank. Then, they're off to the next round in a different Australian coliseum to compete against other winners, but first, they get a good rest at the hotel Mario checked out.

All of that and more in, _**Round 1**__**: Road to Glory**_!


	43. Round 1: Road to Glory!

Chapter 43: Round 1: Road to Glory!

Jak smashed the gas pedal, and the whole ride shot forward, down the neon-lit track. The other racer did so too, though he swerved a little on acceleration. Jak and Daxter noticed the aircraft had an incredible amount of speed to it, yet it seemed entirely too fast for an underground track.

"Jak, control this thing!" Daxter commanded in a fearful shout.

"I'm trying!" Jak shouted back.

The other racer was making sparks on the wall behind them, slowing his ship down. Jak continued speeding forward, however, and soon met the ramp that led to the giant jump across the dark chasm.

"Hold on, Dax!" Jak yelled before releasing the gas at the peak of his jump.

With that sinking feeling in his little stomach, the ottsel screamed to their descent, "WAH!"

Jak spotted the wide hole in the opposite wall and hit the gas pedal again, speeding through it. After a few snaking turns, he caught up with the room with metal spikes in the flooring. Suddenly, the pikes shot downward, out of sight.

"YES! Our boy Bentley's doin' work!" Dax cheered.

Jak adeptly swerved in between two stalactites and completed the next left turn, which lead to the next chasm-jump. Daxter let out another yell, but this time it was for joy. "WOO-HOO!"

After landing in the wall's entrance, Jak slowed down to notice a fork on the track. He took the right path and found the track to twist downwards in a cyclone formation. After reaching the bottom, which in a navigator's sense was now facing the direction of the starting line, he discovered a larger room full spinning saw blades that swung from the jagged ceiling.

"Arbitrary, but dangerous," Jak commented. Suddenly, the blades stopped swinging; they seemed to freeze mid-swing in the air, and Jak and Daxter were able to speed right under them.

"I wonder if that pink guy's getting any luck," Daxter pondered out loud.

The duo raced further down the track to see cubic portions of the ceiling sliding down to crush anything that got in its path. There were also the same types of traps springing up from the ground; together, these traps would change positions at three second intervals.

"Shoot," Jak cursed. "Looks like we'll have to race around these if Bentley doesn't do something quick."

Ratchet was giving Bentley a hectic look. "C'mon, Bentley! Which buttons control the crusher-things!"

Bentley rapidly turned through the pages of the manual. "Er—press the button that looks like a drunken guy eyeing you from across a bar!"

Ratchet searched the entire control panel to spot a button in the shape of a man sitting at bar with a loose smile on his face. "Found it!" the Lombax yelled, smashing the button.

"Good, good—now press and hold another button that looks like Charlie Sheen's ego for three seconds—it should be the biggest button on there!"

"Got it!" Clank found that button easily; it took both of his metal hands to press and hold. Suddenly, a green knob started flashing.

Bentley continued hastily, "Alright, some sort of knob should be flashing—"

"—it is!" Ratchet yelled.

"Turn it ninety degrees!"

After doing so, the sliding block crushers slid back into their places in the ground/ceiling. Jak and Daxter had only driven through a fourth of the hazardous room when the traps were disabled.

"Alright, Bentley! You the man!" Jak shouted in relief and delight.

They sped to the third and final chasm jump, which was shorter than the other ones, and began cruising through another cyclone-circle deal, except this time, it was twisting upward. After thirty dizzy seconds of inertia-induced turning, Jak and Daxter found themselves at the top again. Seeing the starting line, which is now the finish line, Jak pressed hard on the gas pedal to make an exciting finish; however, when the aircraft reached the finish line, it automatically slowed down to a stop.

A crane lowered itself from one of the holes in the ceiling that led to the surface and latched onto Jak's hover ship. After being pulled up, Jak and Daxter smiled at the sunlight that shined through their cockpit's windshield.

A few helpers opened up the ship to help Jak and Daxter out, but the Dynamic Duo refused, preferring to jump out. The announcer guy walked up to them and congratulated their efforts with a silver plaque that read "Pass to Round 2."

"Congratulations, Racer Ten Sixty-Nine! You are the first and only person to advance to the next preliminary round of the Twisted Wipeout competition. Don't lose this plaque, because it will be your only ticket to get into the second round."

"Thanks," said Jak, taking the plaque. He gave Daxter a smirk. "For old time's sake?"

"You know it!" the ottsel assured.

The boys did their trademark victory dance, which consisted of Jak pumping his fist with the plaque in his hand, and of Daxter break dancing, spinning on his back, and sliding to a halt, all complete with victory music in the background.

The announcer said indifferently, "Very nice."

Just then, Keira, Coco, and Goofy reached the center of the coliseum and joined Jak and Daxter. Coco applauded, "Good work, guys!"

Jak opened his mouth to speak, but Daxter beat him to it. Striking an Orange-Lighting pose, he said, "Easy-peezy, come and squeeze me!"

"No thanks!"

Keira suggested, "I say we call it a day and go to that hotel Mario rented. First, we gotta find Bentley, Ratchet, Clank, and Crash."

As they all began to head for one of the stadium's exits, Daxter turned around to see the pink hippo guy lying down on a stretcher. "Whoa! What happened to that guy?"

The announcer heard Daxter's question and answered, "Well, he crashed, got out the ship, threw up, and passed out."

"Ew gross – I'm partying with him tonight!" Daxter joked before turning back and catching up with everyone.

* * *

"Well," began Ratchet, breathing like he had run a marathon, "that was crazy."

Clank commented, "And we completed our mission without any distractions. Isn't that fortunate?"

Suddenly, a knock on the door woke Crash up from his small nap. "Anyone in there?"

After some silence, Crash finally answered, "Yeah!"

The guy's voice on the other side of the door said, "Oh, who's in there?"

Crash nervously looked down to his nametag. "Oh, it's…_ahem, it's Tim."_

"Ah man, I 'aven't seen you since this morning! Where ya been, ya lazy bloke?"

"Fixing things, you know," Crash replied uneasily in a somewhat authentic accent.

"Right, right. Well, have you seen Mikey and Van?"

Crash looked over at Ratchet to see the name "Van" labeled across the chest of his tech uniform. He quickly answered back, "They went to lunch. Probably sleepin' as usual."

"Yeah." When the other guy tried to come in, Crash pushed the door back with his shoulder. "Um, will ya let me in?"

"No…"

"Why?"

"Because…"

"Because why?"

Finally, Crash thought of a feasible excuse. "I've got a girl in here, and we're…you know…getting intimate."

The man on the other end of the door whooped, "WOO—lover boy in there! Why didn't ya tell me before? I'm probably messin' things up for ya, so I'll be outta your hair."

"Later!" Crash said, laughing as the man walked away. "Man, am I a mastermind, or what?"

"Yeah, that was true genius," Ratchet said sarcastically. "Let's go back and regroup with everyone else already, okay? I hate this small, closed off room."

The undercover group of three, plus Clank, found their way back to the Simulator section, which was now almost empty. As they walked around, searching for the other half of their party members, Crash pondered out loud, "Maybe they left without us?"

"Crash!" called a familiar voice.

The bandicoot turned on being addressed by Coco, who was accompanied by Jak, Daxter, Goofy, and Keira. "Hey guys, how was the race?"

The greenish-blonde man responded, "Insane. But well worth it."

Bentley commented, "You can say that five times."

"So, where are we off to now?" Crash asked.

Goofy responded, "Mario went to check out a hotel for us. He said it's across the street."

"Good. I'm beat. Let's get the heck outta this stupid coliseum." Crash turned and ran in the opposite direction. However, he didn't get very far because he slammed face-first into someone's belly. Crash immediately peeled himself off of the hefty person and apologized, "Oh, excuse me, sir!" His eyes widened at the hippo glaring down at him.

"So he can talk," the hippo said half drunkenly.

"Yeah…hey, that was YOU who threw up on the track, right?" Crash asked, stifling laughter.

Daxter pointed out, "That's the guy who was driving drunk and passed out. You know him?"

"Yep. He's an old rival of mine."

Louie rudely asked, "So when did this little pee-stain learn to speak?"

Crash answered happily, "It was actually a few days ago! Coco built something for my brain, and it smartified me!"

Coco nervously added, "Yeah, it was really easy. You want one, too?"

"Shut up," Louie commanded.

"Hey, don't talk that way to my sister!" Crash scolded.

Keira asked, "Who IS this bully?"

"I'll explain later," said Crash angrily. "I almost forgot how much of a jerk you are. For your sake, I suggest you leave us alone!"

"Relax, Bandicoot," the biker said. "I'm not lookin' for a fight. I'm only here for the peaceful competition."

"Oh," said Crash, swayed by Louie's obviously fake attitude. "Hey, you just raced against my friend J—"

"MAR!" Keira quickly corrected. "Our friend Mar just passed the first round, and we're gonna be his pit crew."

Louie laughed and said, "It's too bad you're only in the pit crew, Crash. I thought we'd be competing head-to-head!"

Jak suddenly suggested, "Why don't you two compete with each other on one of those Simulators?"

"There's an idea," Louie pondered. "Whadaya say, bandi-rat?"

Crash glanced at the giant arcade machines. They looked easy enough to handle; the vehicular controller consisted of a seat, steering wheel, ignition, and brakes. There were two vehicles per game-screen, perfect for a head-to-head match with Louie. Crash looked back at Louie and answered, "Alright, let's give it a try."

Louie and Crash hopped on the nearest arcade machine that wasn't already occupied and hit the start button. Jak and the others followed, watching from the sidelines with mild interest.

"Give it your best shot, Crash!" Goofy cheered.

"I'll try," Crash said, nervously holding the steering wheel.

Since Louie was first player, he selected all of the options: two player mode, speed-class Phantom, five laps, track three, and the red virtual hovercraft, leaving the blue one to Crash. The game went into a loading screen.

While it loaded, Crash asked the hippo gangster, "So where's the rest of your convoy?"

"I don't ride with them anymore," Louie plainly answered.

Coco overheard and deduced out loud, "Why? Did they fire you 'cuz you lost that bar?" Louie only growled for a response. However, Coco continued, laughing in between words, "Wait, and let me guess— they elected someone dumber than you to prove a point, right? Like that kangaroo! Or worse—that perverted coyote!"

Louie looked back at her and snarled, "Yeah, that's right!"

Coco's laughter started to fade at the thought of Myles parading around as a gang leader. "Huh?"

The game had started; in a horizontally split screen, Crash's blue hovercraft floated on the top half, and Louie's red one on the bottom. The virtual track looked like a generic futuristic racer videogame with last-gen graphics. The racetrack had its usual twists, turns, a single jump, and it was located in some sort of futuristic metropolis.

The game did a short countdown in a robotic female's voice, "Three, two, one…GO!"

* * *

By the second lap around the twisted track, Crash had finally gotten the hang of driving on a virtual screen. He was about seven seconds behind Louie, and it didn't seem like he was going to catch up anytime soon. However, the track's only gap eluded itself from Crash's memory, and the bandicoot's virtual hovercraft plummeted into the dark pit, setting him back three more seconds.

"Darn it!" Crash cursed in pure frustration.

Meanwhile, Daxter and Coco were doing their best to coach the losing marsupial. Daxter shrieked, "Go left!"

Coco hollered, "Don't hit the walls!"

"Hit the brakes!"

"You're STILL hitting the walls!"

"Watch out for that moving truck!"

"Pick up a weapon, Crash!"

"Hit the jump button!"

"Drive over the turbo pads!"

"Shoot 'em, man!"

"Turn the other way, Crash!"

"Use your boost!"

Irritated to the edge, Crash shouted back, "WHAT BOOST?"

Daxter fumbled, "I don't know, look for it!"

Through all the yelling, Crash had gained five seconds on Louie, most likely from driving with EXTREME road rage and the fact that Louie had fallen into the gap once.

Louie crossed the line and started the fifth and final lap. Two seconds later, Crash did the same. Keira cheered, "You can do it, Crash!"

"Geez, Crash, fire the missiles you've had loaded for three laps!" Ratchet directed.

Crash took a brief second to glance at the three buttons on his steering wheel. There was a red one, a blue one, and a yellow one. "What button?" Crash asked.

"Try red!" Goofy suggested.

Crash mashed the button; instantly, three yellow projectiles erupted from Crash's hovercraft and one of them rocketed into Louie's back thruster. Louie, however, was expecting this.

"Nice try, boy!" Louie taunted as he flipped on his shields, nullifying the attack.

"Darn it!" Crash yelled. "You won't slip away from me again!"

Crash was nose-to-bumper with Louie's ship; the two racers had just successfully landed the virtual jump and were now fighting to complete the final stretch of the arcade's track. After the bandicoot had caught up with the hippo, Louie did his best to ram Crash into the wall.

Crash complained, "Hey! Move over!"

"No way!" Louie said, but soon realized a ghastly mistake he had made. While ramming the struggling bandicoot, he had unwittingly placed himself directly in an obstacle's path, a robotic street cleaner's path to be exact. Louie uttered, "This is bull—"

BLAM went the simulator, showing off Louie's red hovercraft spinning out of control. Crash raced past the hippo and crossed the finish line.

"Oh yeah!" Crash shouted in triumph. "That was cool! Wanna go again?"

"Nah," Louie smugly replied. "I've gotta see if they have any more flights back to Wumpa City. See ya around."

As the hippo slipped off the mechanical ride, Crash called, "Wait! If you're not riding with those biker-bums, then what are you gonna do when you get back?"

"That's none of your business!" Louie snapped. With that, he turned and exited the hall.

After that fun little diversion, Jak and his "pit crew" exited the nearly empty coliseum and crossed the street to the entrance of a four-star hotel called "Hotel Eucalyptus". Once inside, Keira asked the woman at the front desk, "We're here with Mister Mario."

"Oh, the plumber guy who checked out three rooms?"

"Yes, that's him," Keira assured.

"He's up on the fourth floor in rooms sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen."

Keira smiled and said, "Thanks! Let's go, everyone."

* * *

"Why hasn't Orphco returned yet?" Link asked no one in particular. "It shouldn't be taking him so long!"

The shack's interior wasn't very pleasant, so the heroes had migrated outside. Sly and Murray were sitting on a couple of stones; Sora and Donald were currently looking at fruit in a nearby bush; Kairi leaned on the shack's outside wall with Crunch and Riku sitting down on tree stumps a few feet away; Link paced back and forth in front of Aku Aku, who floated next to the shack's door.

"Calm down, Link," Aku Aku advised. "I could go back and see what the hold-up is."

"Maybe that's not such a good idea," said Crunch, shaking his head. "If Orphco got captured—"

"Don't say he got captured!" Link cut-off.

"Take it easy, man," Crunch retorted back. "All I'm sayin' is that IF he got captured, he wouldn't want us to trail back to him like mice in a trap."

"Well, Crunch," Aku Aku began, "One way or another, we have to at least check on him."

Crunch stood up and volunteered, "I'll go with you, then, Aku."

As the bandicoot strolled over to the witchdoctor mask, Link said, "If you find Draksin or any other bad-guy, don't try to take him on alone. Hurry back."

Before disappearing in a green haze, Aku Aku said, "Right. We're off, everyone."

Link muttered something under his breath. Things would not be going their way if Orphco was suddenly captured by the enemy, or worse. He balled up his fist and hit the side of the house. "Dammit!"

"I think you should chill, man," Riku suggested. "Aku Aku and Crunch'll be back shortly."

"Sure…you're right." Link took a few deep breaths and sat down on the empty log next to Riku.

Meanwhile, Sora picked enough of the red berries off of the bush and sniffed them. "They don't smell dangerous. You wanna test 'em, Donald?"

The duck mage shrugged and said, "Okay." Donald took a few of the red berries from Sora's hand and gulped them down.

"So?" Sora asked.

Smiling, Donald replied, "They taste pretty—_UGH!"_ Suddenly, Donald began gasping for breath, clutching his throat with both hands. _"HEEEELP!"_

Sora cried, "DONALD!"

Sly Cooper stood up and shouted, "Somebody get him some help!"

"How?" Link asked.

"And from where?" Murray added.

Very gradually, everyone began to stop panicking as they realized Donald had stopped choking and started laughing hysterically.

"That joker," Riku said scornfully.

Sly announced, "Alright then, everyone, the next time Donald's in trouble, just ignore him because he's probably pulling our leg."

Donald giggled some more and said, "Hey, it was a harmless prank! The berries taste A-O.K.!"

Just then, Aku Aku and Crunch returned. The red-furred bandicoot said, "No good. Orphco's no where to be found."

Aku Aku reported, "We checked the waterfall and the house. I even scanned the entire island for his holy presence, but I discovered nothing."

Link sighed angrily. "Just great."

Trying to sound as least insensitive as possible, Riku asked, "…Did ya get our toothbrushes?"

Crunch answered, "Believe or not, we looked for 'em, but they were gone, too."

Sora pointed out, "Hey, then that might mean Orphco at least made it to the island, so he was probably…oh, no."

"That's not good," Link stated.

Kairi tried to bring out the bright side. "There's a small town a ways down the mountain. We could go there and look for toothbrushes."

Link sighed again. "Well, it's better than staying up here. I'm getting light headed…"

Crunch laughed and said, "Maybe you should stop _sighing _so much!"

"That might be a good idea." Link hunched forward and placed one hand on his forehead, regaining his bearings. "I'm guessing the walk's about an hour down, so I say we get started right now."

The nine heroes got started on their trek immediately, leaving the wretched shack. The slope downward was a little narrow, but manageable. A clearing in the trees helped reveal a trail, which led down to the small, busy town. Along the way, they encountered many freshwater streams and steep drops, which made the terrain seem to have been recently disturbed by something.

Finally, after a fifty minute hike, they made it onto the end of a paved road. They were facing the back of a wooden building; after venturing further past the building, they came to realize that had arrived in a tourist town of sorts, full of many diverse peoples (and animals).

"Hey, it's a tourist town," Sly Cooper observed. He spotted what looked like an anthropomorphic bear tourist guide handing out pamphlets to passersby. "Excuse me, sir, can you tell where a good place to buy toiletries would be?"

The guide shook his head with a confused look; he didn't understand Sly's language, so the raccoon improvised by motioning with his hands while he said, "Toothbrushes? Where can I find them?" He made two fingers like a toothbrush moving back and forth in front of his teeth.

Now, I don't know any Russian, nor do I plan on learning any just for this story, so you will deal with the absence of any Russian dialogue. With that said, the tourist guide grunted something in recognition and pointed to a nearby sign on the sidewalk. It appeared to be directions; the sign had Russian letters printed on it, and right below was Chinese symbols, and below that was English, which read, "Tourists Stores" and had an arrow pointing up the street.

"Oh," said the raccoon. "Thanks."

As the heroes passed the bear tourist guide, the grizzly followed them with his gray eyes, which strangely turned red and narrowed into small lights.

Link led his group to follow the signs and let them read, simply because he couldn't understand any of the markings. As they walked, many of the other tourists gave them funny looks. Who wouldn't gawk at them? What with Link's Robin Hood getup, Sly's cat burglar outfit, Sora's odd Drive clothes, Murray's pilot uniform, the fact that there was a floating wooden tiki mask, Kairi's…whatever the heck it is, Donald's wizard outfit, and Crunch's being shirtless. Riku was the only one who looked a bit normal with his yellow vest, black undershirt, and blue jeans. He just looked like another troubled teen being dragged on some vacation.

"Looks like the store's the next building over," Riku dictated. They all crossed the street and turned into the small, cramped general store.

Once inside, Murray, Kairi, and Riku picked some generic-brand toothbrushes and met up with the cashier. Riku handed the teller the packaged toothbrushes. After scanning them, the cashier told him the cash amount, confusing the teen.

"Um…do you take munny?" Riku asked.

"Munny?" the cashier repeated. Then he said in one of those heavy, yet funny to listen to, accents, "Oh! Munny, munny, munny! Like the song from America! You must be English speakers, no?"

"Yeah, we are!" Murray confirmed, glad to find someone who knows English.

"So how much is it, again?" Kairi asked.

The cashier reported, "It is one hundred and twenty rubles and eighty five kopeks."

With a blank look, Riku said, "Uh…that sounds expensive."

"No, no, no! See, our Russian currency is very low in, how you say, economic standings. In America, these would only cost four U.S. dollars. Do you have any dollars? Because I will GLADLY take those."

The two teens looked at the hippo, who shook his head. Crunch came up and pulled out a five dollar bill. "Will this cover it, sir?"

The cashier stared at the green with wide eyes. "Oh. My. God!"

After paying for the toothbrushes, Crunch thanked the man, "Thank you, sir. What's your name? We might need a little help later."

"I am called Mikhail Masoluv. Come back here anytime you need help or feel like giving me money!"

Crunch walked everyone out of the store and turned around immediately with a disgruntled look. "Alright everyone, give it up."

Along with seven other confused looks, Link asked, "Give up what?"

The muscular bandicoot said like a boy scout, "I already know some of you were shoplifting in there, so give up what you stole."

Link scoffed, "None of us stole anything, thank you very—"

"Here," said Donald, pulling out a keychain.

"Fine," said Riku, pulling out a yellow bandana, a pack of gum, and a hair comb.

"Okay, okay," Sly Cooper said, taking out a small pocket flashlight, mini-binoculars, and stick of beef jerky. "What? This is SUPPLIES. And I was a little hungry."

Crunch's energy was well past expended. He sighed and said, "C'mon, let's just roam around."

Sora looked up at a nearby sign and read it to himself. "Hey guys, it says there's an amusement park down the road."

"That sounds like fun!" Murray exclaimed. "Maybe there's a bungee ride!"

"Or a rollercoaster!" Riku thought excitedly.

Crunch scratched the back of his neck and pondered out loud, "I could go for a teacup ride."

Kairi said extravagantly, "Well what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Link halted everyone, "Hold on a minute! We are on a dangerous mission that we cannot afford to jeopardize!"

Sora put in, "But I think we can afford some fun."

After giving the Keyblade Master a disdainful look, Link felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see that it was Kairi's hand, and he heard her say, "I think we could all loosen up from the whole Orphco situation. Don't you think you could lose some stress?"

Link turned back around and grunted, "Hmph. Fine, but we're going back before it gets dark."

"Alright, Link!" Crunch cheered. "Let's go get amused in the park!

Crunch led the way down the street, smiling from ear to ear. Sly walked in the group's rear next to Donald, slinging his cane over his shoulder as he did so. "This should be better than hiking around a mountain."

"You can say that again!" Donald agreed.

Unexpectedly, they witnessed an ill-conceived maneuver done by the Hylian Hero himself; Link had paced himself to catch up with Kairi while she was talking with Sora. Sora was on her right side while Link snuck up on her left and pointed at Sora's shoe, saying it was untied. Indeed it was, so Sora knelt down to tie it back up while Link began to walk away with Kairi.

"Uh-oh," Donald said, "I can already tell this is gonna be—"

"Entertaining," Sly interjected.

* * *

_I think I'll do the preview differently today. _

_On the next chapter, our heroes decide to have a little fun. They've earned it, right?_

Crunch and Donald ride in a teacup, happily spinning around with two other children. Sly and Aku Aku watch behind the safety rails with slightly embarrassed looks.

_And Link is only lookin' for a good time…_

Riding a two-seater gondola up a mountainside, Link puts his arm around a blushing Kairi and asks innocently, "Have you ever been up this high?"

_Even if it means making Sora's life miserable…_

Only one seat behind the two, which is about thirty feet, Sora watches Link with angry eyes, practically growling.

_Meanwhile, our racing heroes make their way to the bigger, badder Warriors Coliseum, courtesy of a first class flight funded by Wipeout Corporation. _

"Who knew spoiling ourselves could be so fun?" Coco commented as she reclined back in her seat.

_This means a lot of time to flirt for Daxter at Ratchet's expense._

The orange ottsel slid down the aisle between Ratchet and Coco, flexing his weasel-arms. "You can't resist this!"

…_and maybe even a few affectionate moments between Jak and Keira…_

"Need something fixed, Jak?" Keira asks in a seductive tone, holding a wrench.

"Uh…" Jak draws a blank.

…_because we can't get enough of those, right?_

_All that and more in the next chapter, __**Flirtatious Mission**__! Wow, did I seriously name it that? _


	44. Flirtatious Mission

**Chapter 44: Flirtatious Mission**

As soon as Sora finished tying his shoe, he realized Kairi had sped up ahead with Link. Actually, the other way around seemed much more plausible to him after a second of thinking. The Keyblader stood up and frowned, realizing he had been conned. He paced forward and caught up with the pair, trying to sound casual as he said, "So, you wanna go on a rollercoaster, Kairi?"

As the girl opened her mouth to positively answer, Link almost immediately cut her off, "Sure we do."

Doing his best to hide his scorn, Sora replied, "Well, Kairi, do you wanna go on a big one first or save it for later?"

This time, Kairi got three words in. "Well, we can—" Those were the only words she got in, unfortunately.

"—Worry about that when we get there." Link finished. To be honest, the Hylian had no clue what a rollercoaster was or how it was supposed to generate fun.

"Thanks, Kairi," Sora said, every hint of sarcasm in his voice.

The three followed Crunch to the entrance of the amusement park. At the front gates, Crunch read the English sign that listed the prices. "Whoa, ten bucks for an adult? Do we have any toddlers, here?"

"Looks like this won't be enough," Aku Aku observed. "Dang. I was really looking forward to a big-swing."

Sly Cooper stated quietly to the duck next to him, "Can you cast a spell that'll keep the clerk-guy busy for a second?"

Donald winked and said, "Sure can do! I just need him to look the other way." He turned to Crunch and asked, "Crunch, can you move out of the way?"

"Um, okay," Crunch said, awkwardly stepping aside.

Sly thought of a distraction for the clerk. He pointed off behind the man and said, "Whoa—the K.G.B.!"

As soon as the man turned away with a frightened look, the duck mage raised his Save the Queen staff, which at the time he was using like a cane to blend in, and yelled, "Stopga!"

"Stop-what?" Murray repeated.

An ephemeral image of a clock appeared around the man's head, and he seemed frozen there in his turned away position. Crunch stared at the man, asking, "Buddy, you okay? Donald, what did you do?"

"Magic!" Donald said with a satisfied grin.

Sly Cooper then proceeded to extend his cane over the ticket counter and grab a large roll of tickets out of the frozen man's hand with the hook of his cane. Pulling the loot back to him, he smirked and said, "And team work."

"Alright, guys!" cheered Riku, taking a ticket from the roll.

"That's a disgrace, but I'll live with it," Link said, also smirking and taking a ticket, plus an extra one for Kairi.

After everyone grabbed a ticket, they entered the park, brightly glancing at all of their choices of amusement. Before anyone could frolic to their favorite attraction, Link announced, "Okay, everyone, do your best to stick with a buddy. I don't want any of us to get lost."

Crunch said dismissively, "Teacups. Bye."

"Wait up, Crunch!" Aku Aku called after the burly bandicoot.

Murray, Sly, and Donald unanimously decided to casually stroll in Crunch's and Aku's direction, chatting amongst themselves. Meanwhile, Riku asked the remaining three, "So what are we doing first?"

"Roller coasters!" Sora answered excitedly.

"Alright, let's go get 'em!"

Link must have seen something better because he suggested, "Why don't we save whatever those are for later?"

"Fine," Sora said sternly. "You have something better in mind?"

"Maybe."

Link pointed to a large booth with three short lines of people. Behind the booth was some sort of gondola ride that distanced around a nearby mountain and back.

Sora uninterestedly gazed at the attraction, mainly because Link had been the one to suggest it. "You wanna ride THAT first?"

Riku commented, "I don't know. It looks kinda relaxing."

"I was talking to Link!" Sora corrected.

"I don't know," Link started with a grin, imitating Riku. "It looks kinda relaxing."

"Well, Riku, Kairi and I wanna go on roller coasters, so you can have fun riding that whatever-it-is by yourself."

Before Sora dismissed himself, Riku held onto his friend's shoulder, halting him. "I don't think it could exactly hurt to go on the gondola first. That's what it's called, by the way."

Sighing, Sora asked, "Do you wanna go on the gondola first, Kairi?"

Getting her first full line of dialogue, Kairi replied, "Actually, the gondola looks scarier than roller coasters. Look how high up it goes!"

"Yeah, it's a little dangerous, don't ya think?" Sora asked deviously.

Riku disagreed, "Not really. Look, the booth is giving out waiver forms! Never mind—that's the opposite of safe."

"So, roller coasters it is!" Sora declared happily, turning in the other direction.

Link shook his head in defeat and said, "Fine. Have it your way. We'll go on those coasters of yours. But I want to ride the gondola later, if you guys don't mind."

Back with Crunch, the red bandicoot was excitedly waiting in line with a confused Donald Duck, who looked around at all of the equally puzzled children also waiting in line.

"Uh…Crunch? Do you know that this is a kid's ride?" Donald asked.

Crunch rebutted, "That's not particularly true. Spinning around helps relieve the stress, so it's everyone's ride!"

The mage shrugged and said indifferently, "If you say so."

After the wait was over, the other children bounded out of the teacups, looking dizzy and energetic, and the amusement park employee signaled for the next group to enter the ride. Crunch and Donald were among those twenty four; they happily picked a teacup (the one with the picture of a frog leaping across stars) and sat in it, awaiting the ride's start. Two other children also entered their vessel of amusement, giving the grown animals some weird looks.

After the employee came around and made sure the teacup's doors were safely closed, the rides began slowly spinning around, and soon enough, they picked up speed.

Sly and Aku Aku passed by the kiddy ride's line and noticed two grownups happily laughing out loud with the other kids in the ride. Unfortunately, they both recognized them.

Sly Cooper started, "This is only embarrassing if everyone knows they're with us."

Suddenly, the adults supervising their children turned to the raccoon and floating mask, muttering things under their breath.

"Never mind—this is now officially embarrassing."

From behind the two, Murray jogged up to them and announced excitedly, "Guys, food stand. Funnel cake. Free. Let's go."

Aku Aku hastily urged himself and the raccoon to follow after the hippo, not wanting to be stared at another second by the adults. "Let's go, Sly. These funnel cakes better have powdered sugar."

In one of the roller coaster's lines, Link, Kairi, Sora, and Riku awaited their turns, three of them feeling a tingly thrilling sensation in their legs. Link was not one of them.

"I don't see the big fuss over a cart racing at high speeds on a slightly unstable-looking track, doing loops, turns, drops, and whatnot," Link stated.

"Give it a rest," Sora said, annoyed with the Hylian. "You know this is gonna be more fun than a gondola ride!" He gave those last two words a hefty dose of contempt.

"Whatever."

"I bet you're just really scared, aren't you?" Sora teased. "Don't worry, the first time's always scary."

Link only crossed his arms and looked on at the fun ride, raising an eyebrow. Kairi commented, "Well if he's scared, he sure hides it well."

Sora smirked as he said, "You can say that again."

Suddenly, Link uncrossed his arms and said, "So what? Maybe I am a little scared. This ride is quite intimidating, you know."

"I knew it," Sora confirmed.

"So what, you're not scared either?" Link asked grouchily.

"Nope. I ride in gummi ships all the time and they're like ten-times more dangerous rollercoasters."

"Quit showin' off, Sora," Riku complained.

"I guess that makes you special," Link said. He turned to Kairi and asked, "Will you sit next to me, then?"

A little caught off guard, Kairi replied, "Oh, um, sure! No problem."

"Thanks."

On the inside, Sora scoffed and ridiculed Link's little attempt to get closer to Kairi. He knew that was the only reason Link was going on the rollercoaster, anyway. Wait a minute, he probably wasn't even scared.

When the wait for their turn was finally over, the carts returned to the dock, releasing the overjoyed tourists. The safety gates in front of Link opened, and he and other first-in-lines bounded over to the four-seater carts. Sora, Kairi, and Riku followed after him.

Sitting on the far left seat, Link quietly buckled himself in. Kairi came to sit next to him, as she promised, followed by Sora, and then Riku on the far right. Riku reached up and pulled down the cart's safety bar after buckling in, and looked to his friends and asked, "You guys ready?"

"Oh, yeah!" Sora replied jubilantly.

"Are you ready, Link?" Kairi asked merrily.

It was unclear if whether or not Link was scared out of his wits, or just ready to move along with the ride. Then again, he holds the Triforce of Courage within him…

"Yeah, yeah. Let's get this over with," was Link's emotionless reply.

After the park employee came around to inspect the safety of the carts, the ride began to slowly move forward out of the docks. Naturally, everyone tensed up as the carts began to ride up a steep hill on the track, making the eerie hooking noise on its slow ascent. Soon enough, all four were at such a high altitude, they could overlook the entire tourist town.

When the coaster stopped at the peak, almost without thinking, Link grabbed onto Kairi's hand, causing the girl to jump. After realizing what he did, he loosened his grip so as to not crush her hand with the metal plates in his glove. Suddenly, Sora screamed, "HERE WE GO!"

The cart raced down the drop with the speed of a jet. Riku screamed, "WHOA—AAAAAH!"

"WOO-HOOO!" Sora yelped to their descent.

"AAAAAH!" Kairi screamed.

Link remained silent, however. But his expression sure as heck wasn't. He held the most freaked out look in his entire life. What kind of death trap had he gone on? However, he did choose to squeeze tighter on Kairi's hand.

The cart raced up another hill and did a loop, earning more joyful cries from the teenagers (minus Link). The track twisted into a tornado spin downward for fifteen whole seconds, and then shot through a tunnel in the nearby mountainside. In the dark, Link felt his heart race as the cheery voices of his comrades echoed throughout the tunnel. The coaster continued to race at high speeds in darkness, making a few gut twisting turns in the process.

Finally, there was light in the distance, and the cart shot out of the tunnel and into sunlight again, returning to the docks. The teens bounded out of the car, dizzy and satisfied.

"That was so cool!" Sora shouted from the rush. "How was your first time, Link?"

The Hylian only brushed some dirt off his sleeve as he said, "Whatever, it was fast, I guess. A little too fast for my tastes. Can we go on that gondola now?"

Before Sora could negatively respond, Kairi cut him off and said, "Sure, Link."

The four heroes made their way to the mountain ride's service booth. After a short wait in line, Riku retrieved four waiver forms for him and his friends. Once they signed the papers and turned them back in, they made their way to a much shorter line where the gondola would load people onto its moving seats.

It appeared the seats would rotate around a large mechanical apparatus and automatically seat whoever was standing in its path. After the pair of people in front of the teens was loaded onto a seat, Riku realized something.

"Guys, these are two-seaters. Two of us will have to go after the others."

Link smiled and said, "Thanks for volunteering to go last, Riku and Sora."

Riku's eyes thinned. "But I didn't volunteer…"

Sora stuttered, "W-wait, who says you guys get to go first?"

"Too late, Sora!" Kairi replied, thinking it was an innocent game.

The Hylian and Princess of Heart paced up to the apparatus and patiently stood in front of a moving seat, letting it sweep them up and carry them along the mountainside.

Riku angrily muttered, "We could have done rock-paper-scissors!"

Sora urged, "C'mon, Riku we need to get to the next chair!"

The boys dashed over to the line in which they were supposed to stand on and waited for the next chair come up and sweep them from behind. Pulling down the safety bar, Sora glared at the man in green sitting in the next seat in front of him, which was about thirty feet away. He stopped glaring and feigned a grin when the duo ahead of him turned around and smiled back at him and Riku.

"How are you guys holding up?" Kairi called.

"A-O.K!" Sora yelled back with a phony smile.

When the pair ahead turned back around to face forward, Link sneaked a quick grin to Sora and Riku as he outstretched his arm over Kairi's shoulder. He turned back forward to see the princess giving him a strange look. In response, he told her, "I don't want you to slip."

Meanwhile, Sora was still reeling from that last maneuver. "Why that rotten little…elf ear-having…hood-wearing…"

Riku tried seizing his friend's discontent. "Calm down, Sora. You don't want to pass out again at this high altitude."

"Oh, yeah…" Sora recalled the last time he passed out in Reiden's tower. "You know something? I'm starting to think Link is only trying to mess with me."

"That's ridiculous, man. Just enjoy the scene."

"I can't…not with that jerk in it."

Noticing his friend was acting more depressed than he'd seen in a while, Riku attempted to mend Sora's misery, "C'mon, Sora, cheer up."

"No."

Sighing, the dark Keyblader said, "You can't let Link get you down. That's exactly what he wants."

Sora looked up and asked, "Then what should I do?"

"Um…you have to…" Riku thought hard about what he was going to say next. "You gotta be a man about it! You have to take control of situations and never let 'em see you weak!"

"I don't know…" Sora uneasily replied.

"Aw, what ever happened to 'Shut up when I'm talking to you'?"

Sora laughed at the brief memory. "I guess I see your point."

It had been thirty minutes up and around the mountainside, and the heroes had observed many beautiful sights along the ride, including river streams flowing in and out of tunnels within the mountain, hilly areas surrounded by trees and wildlife, rocky plateaus that nearly reached their dangling legs, and the setting sun over the windy mountains.

Link suavely asked the girl next to him, "Have you ever been this high up, before?"

"Hm…does Kingdom Hearts count?" Kairi suggested with an embarrassed smile.

"Sure, sure…" Link answered back, not really knowing what in the world a Kingdom Hearts was. "I bet it didn't look as beautiful as the sight we're seeing right now."

"Nowhere near," Kairi shortly replied. Deep down, she knew she had major feelings for the brown-haired boy behind her, but now she couldn't tell if she was developing new feelings for the blonde-haired one next to her. Even though Sora had endeavored so much for her, sometimes she couldn't tell if he felt the same way about her. The only times he seemed to show it was when he and Link would constantly battle for her attention. However, Link dared to show his feelings many more times than those, and he had helped and saved her on a number of occasions, too.

"Kairi?' Link tried. "You awake?"

"Yeah, just thinking."

"Well, it's time to get off the ride. We're back around the mountain."

* * *

"GUYS! GUYS!" Crash screamed at the top of his lungs. "HURRY! QUICK!"

Slowly, everyone stood up from their respective locations of the single hotel room. Followed by Goofy, Ratchet, Clank, Mario, Daxter, Keira, Jak, and Bentley, Coco walked into the small bathroom where Crash was screaming from. "Is this important?" she asked cynically.

"Yeah!" Crash yelled. "Everyone—look in the toilet!"

Suddenly, sounds of disgust and disapproval erupted from heroes he called in.

"Aw, that's gross, Crash!" Coco shrieked.

"Dude, what is WRONG with you?" freaked Ratchet.

"I am way too exhausted for this garbage," Bentley grumbled.

"You're supposed to flush it, you nincompoop!" Daxter chastised.

"Doesn't take a plumba to figure dat out," Mario said dryly.

As they all turned and began to exit the bathroom, Crash must have just got what they were thinking. "No-no-no! Look at the WATER in the toilet! It flushes so differently!"

Comically, they all turned around and gave Crash the same distrusting look, so the bandicoot rolled his eyes and shouted, "There's nothing else in it!"

Cramped in the tight space, everyone scuttled inside the bathroom and peered inside the toilet. Crash instinctively pushed down on the flusher-thing, and the water in the bowl started sinking in a clockwise motion. "See?"

"I want the last five seconds of my life back," Mario stated before exiting the bathroom.

"What was so different, Crash?" Goofy asked, puzzled.

"It was the water!" Crash explained. "It turns differently—like in the other direction or something!"

Jak held up his hands and liberated his thoughts, "I wouldn't know anything about that."

"Look—I mean I thought the water turned counterclockwise down here in the southern ham sandwich!"

"He means southern hemisphere," Coco pointed out to everyone. Turning around to weave in between everyone and make for the exit, she added, "And that's a stupid legend that's been proved wrong on a number of occasions."

"It all depends on the design of the plumbin'," Mario agreed from the hotel room.

On cue, Daxter wittily said before exiting the cramped bathroom, "Well, this has been intriguing and also revealing of Crash's IQ level. If you'll excuse me, I've got room service to order."

"Oh, come on! Are you saying I was the only one who actually believed that theory?" Crash asked, sounding deranged. "Let me guess—you're all pretending to agree with Coco so you don't look dumb?"

Jak grabbed Keira and declared, "We should go…"

"Gotta make out!" the aqua-haired girl added.

Ratchet turned away and mumbled, "Sorry…I've gotta…shoot something."

Bentley wheeled around and said, "Yeah, I've gotta…multiply some stuff…and divide some quotients…"

Goofy admitted, "Gawrsh, I've never even heard of that hemisphere thinga-majig. Sounds confusing."

After everyone but Clank had left the bathroom, the little robot tried enlivening the bandicoot's spirits a little.

"Cheer up, Crash," Clank said awkwardly. "Next time, they'll have your back. But to be honest, I already knew that theory was nonsense, so I couldn't help you there…"

Back in the hotel room, General Eurathaccus was finally doing something non-screwy; he was meditating, slowly floating above the hotel room's lone bedside table. He seemed to have a troubling air about him. The elderly Precursor of Twilight opened his eyes and said lowly, "Attention, soldiers."

Surprisingly, everyone heard his command and turned to face him. "What is it, General?" Ratchet asked.

"I can't sense Orphco's life force anywhere in Russian territory. I don't know when, but he either left or was disposed of."

"What are you saying…he was attacked?" Jak asked.

"I'm still trying to search the rest of the world for his aura," the general thought out loud. "I'm gonna need a few minutes. It usually doesn't take as long when I'm up in the HQ."

In turn, everyone gave the general his time of concentration. They could tell something serious had happened by Eurathaccus' extremely solemn tone. However, what they were even more afraid of was the possibility that their friends could be in danger.

After two and a half minutes, the general reluctantly confirmed, "I can't sense him anywhere, soldiers."

"That might not mean our allies are down for the count, too," Bentley proposed. "Does anyone have any other means of communicating with them, like a cell phone?"

Crash looked to the side and said in an almost hesitant tone, "Yeah…"

"Well, what are you waiting for? Call them!" Bentley urged.

With everyone watching him with hopeful eyes, Crash sighed and said, "Okay." Dialing Crunch's number, he put the phone to his ear and waited…two seconds for the helpdesk tone to loudly say "Emergency Calls Only."

Crash smiled apologetically as everyone made multiple sounds of disapproval again.

"Sorry, guys! I have AT&T!" Crash apologized. Suddenly, a blue holographic map of the seven continents with only a few dots scattered across the regions appeared above Crash's phone.

"Coco, do you have a cellphone?" Bentley asked.

She crossed her arms and answered contemptuously, "_Nooo_….but I'm supposed to be getting one for my birthday when I'm _old enough_."

Mario raised a gloved hand and said, "No big deal, fellas. I'll drop a few dohlas so you can make a long distance call downstairs."

"What?" Crash asked in confusion.

Sighing, the plumber repeated slowly, "Loooong distaaaance caaaaall." Still receiving the same confused look from the bandicoot, Mario shook his head and told him, "Just follow me, ya moron."

Downstairs in the lobby, Mario led Crash to the pay phone and put in the appropriate cash amount. Crash dialed Crunch's number and waited patiently as the phone rang.

To kill time, Crash asked about the song playing in the lobby's speakers. "What's that song playing right now? I know I've heard it a million times before."

Mario thought for a moment before answering, "Oh, that's uh…Dust in the Wind."

"I like that song, it's calming."

"It's alright, I guess."

"Seems really good to listen to when I take my walks—oh wait, here's Crunch—Yo, Crunch!"

Through the phone, Crunch's voice returned, "Yo, Crash, what's up?"

"We're just at this four star hotel. Hey, are you guys still alive?"

On his hike back up to the cabin in the mountains with the others, Crunch gave the phone a weird look before saying, "Yeah, we're still kickin'." He and Murray were carrying some sleeping bags they had purchased from a store.

"Oh, because the General Precursor guy told us that Orphco was dead and gone."

"Oh right, about that. Orphco left to go get a few missing things Riku, Kairi, and Murray left behind—"

A boy's voice in the background said drearily, "Thanks, Crunch."

"—and he hasn't returned since. Aku Aku and I tried teleporting back to the island to find him, but he wasn't even there."

Crash sighed deeply. "You guys might be in danger, then. The General couldn't find a trace of Orphco's life force anywhere on the planet."

"I guess that means that Draksin got him, too," Crunch solemnly concluded.

"Don't worry, though. We can probably send that surly teenager and that orange-haired, trouble making Precursor over to you guys right away!"

The next morning, the heroes woke up from a restless night of worrying for their friends in Russia. Actually, woke isn't the right word. They were AWAKENED from a restless night of worrying for their friends in Russia. Okay, one more time. They were rudely awakened by a violent beating on their hotel doors from a restless night of worrying for their friends in Russia at five thirty.

"What the Helsinki?" Crash slurred tiredly, waking up in the hotel room along with Jak, Bentley, Ratchet, Clank, and Daxter.

The Lombax rolled off the pillows he was laying on and stood up to walk over to the room's door. After unlocking and opening it, Ratchet's eyes flew open when a tall and scary-looking man in a black suit towered over him. "Uh…who are you?"

"We are with the Wipeout Corporation coming to safely escort you to your private first class flight to the Warriors Coliseum," the tall man said in a serious monotone.

"Oh…kay…" Ratchet turned around and alerted his friends, "Guys, wake up! We gotta plane to catch!"

The man in black was ready to escort the heroes to an awaiting limousine parked in front of the hotel's entrance. After twenty minutes of preparation, our heroes were finally ready to depart.

Mario and Goofy had exited their room first and patiently waited in the hallway with the serious-looking man in the black suit. Next, Coco and Keira appeared from their room, looking a little agitated.

"Why do we have to wake up so early?" Coco asked.

"So you can catch the plane," replied the hired men.

Keira pried, "Okay, why does the plane take off so early then?"

He answered, "The plane is actually late. We were supposed to fly you all in the middle of the night."

"Oh, well that _so_ would've been more convenient," Keira commented sarcastically.

Suddenly, Jak emerged from the nearby hotel room with Crash, Ratchet, Bentley, Daxter and Clank following behind him. He seemed to be the most awake out of the entire group.

"Don't complain, Keira," he said with a wide grin. "We get to fly first class. I know you'll like that."

She whipped around and snapped, "Don't get me started, Jak!"

"Okay, _sorry,"_ the young racer apologized indifferently, keeping his grin. "Well, are we ready to go yet?"

Mario confirmed, "Yeah, we're packed up and ready to vamoose."

Still somehow bright-eyed, Jak replied, "Good. Let's—"

Suddenly, the other heroes in the hall interrupted the blonde man, loudly saying, "MOVE PEOPLE."

"Uh…" stumbled a confused Jak. "What was that for?"

"You always say that before we go somewhere, Jak!" said a grouchy Daxter.

"Okay…" Jak eased. Looking at everyone's expressions, he inferred, "I can tell none of you are morning people."

The Wipeout Corp. bodyguard said, "Excuse me, but we don't have much time. Do you have your plaque?"

Jak pulled out his pass to the second round. "Got it."

The man in black told the group, "Good. My name is Russ and I'll be escorting you all to your ride."

"Oh yeah, that's right!" Ratchet suddenly remembered. "A limo!"

After hearing that, the heroes wasted no time in getting to the first floor and checking themselves out the hotel building. The long and gray vehicle was parked directly in front of the entrance, awaiting its passengers. There was something definitely different about this luxury vehicle, like the fact that there were armor plates set up around every wheel. Why in the world would a limousine have armor plates?

Dawn had leaked onto the horizon, but that sight was not easily seen from the tinted windows inside the limousine. Each hero within the vehicle seemed at least slightly pleased with their mode of transportation, despite the rude awakening. Sitting next to Coco, Ratchet bounced in his seat like an excited toddler going to the toy store, or in his case, the auto repair shop. He must have been anxious for the limo to start driving.

"I'm guessing you've never been in a limousine before," Coco assumed.

"Nope! Well, not since that after-party when I defeated the Protopet, but that was ages ago!"

The bandicootess crossed her arms and said condescendingly, "You're acting like such a kid, right now. Even Crash is more behaved than you."

Indeed, Crash was sitting quietly in his seat with his eyes closed and head leaned back. He had his hands in front of him as if he were holding a beach ball. "That's weird," the Lombax observed.

Moving his hand in front of Crash's eyes, Ratchet chimed, "Hello? Anybody home?"

Crash's only response was, "Shhh…"

Bentley took notice and asked, "Whoa, what exactly IS he doing?"

"Beats me," Ratchet shrugged.

"Maybe he's…meditating," Coco suggested.

Daxter chucked a pack of gum at the bandicoot's skull, but still no effect. He then proceeded to toss a random wrench at the bandicoot, which ricocheted of his skull. Crash only lowly uttered, "Ouch…"

"He's possessed by Dark Makers!" the ottsel concluded.

Goofy suggested, "Maybe he's gotta thick skull like me?"

"It could be a lack of sleep that's put him in some kind of intangible stupor," the turtle theorized.

"Let's draw on 'em!" Daxter said with a smile.

Sitting next to Clank, Jak recommended, "Guys—or we could just leave him alone."

"I'm still wondering why he went from a gum packet to a wrench," Clank thought out loud.

The bodyguard Russ peered out a window, noticing a speeding pickup truck headed straight for their limousine. He yelled to the driver, "Freddy, STEP ON IT!"

The limousine shot forward from its parked position and hit the busy streets, causing its passengers to lurch backward. Jak shouted, "WHOA—WHAT'S THE DEAL?"

Russ said, "This is why I'm here—to protect you all from agents trying to steal your position in the Twisted Wipeout competition."

The pick up truck was swerving behind the racing limo, trying to bump the heroes' ride.

"Why are we always in life or death situations that involve some kind of vehicular mayhem?" Daxter inquired, holding tightly to his seat belt strap.

"Don't be silly, Dax," Jak said nervously. He swayed left and right as the car swerved away from the pursuing "agent." Jak added, "And besides, there are usually guns involved, so it could get worse…"

From the passenger seat of the pursuing truck, the window rolled down and a rather strange, shirtless individual with a clown mask strapped to his face leaned out the window, brandishing a handgun.

"It's worse!" Keira exclaimed, ducking down.

The clown-mask wearing man fired the gun, planting bullet holes along the trunks of the limousine and the armor plates around the back wheels. Clutching onto Ratchet, Coco screamed, "AAH! They're shooting at us! Do something, Ratchet!"

"Don't worry! I've got just the tool of destruction for the job!" The Lombax proudly pulled out his coveted Constructo Pistol, which shined and sparkled like a product off of an infomercial. This was a small blue and white handgun that shoots small bursts of energy. "I'll use the Construct—wait, never mind, the narrator already said what it was called. Get down!"

Rolling down the window, Ratchet popped out and aimed his weapon at the pursuing vehicle's tiers. "Take this!" the lethal Lombax yelled as he let off shot after shot from his Constructo Pistol. The shots narrowly hit the street and even the hood of the other car, slowing the chasers down a bit. Finally, a few shots burst a tire, and the vehicle started swerving, struggling to maintain control.

Ratchet peeled back into the limo to take cover from the return fire and requested, "I could use some help!"

"On it!" Bentley shouted. He removed some charge bombs from his wheelchair's arm compartments and dropped them out the window.

Still swerving like crazy, the pickup truck rolled over the bomb as soon as it detonated, resulting in a hefty explosion and a flipped over car.

"YES!" the turtle pumped his fist in joy.

"See ya later, suckerooneys!" Daxter saluted his fallen enemies.

Believe it or not, through all the mayhem, Crash Bandicoot was still in his preoccupied state of trance.

Jak turned and looked out the rear window and exclaimed, "It's not over yet!"

The blonde hero wasn't fibbing; there were three more cars racing behind them now, one a gray sedan, another pickup truck, and the last an ATV…wait, an ATV?

"Wait, an ATV?" Mario shrieked. "Where the HECK did they get that?"

Coco took it upon herself to slap her brother across the face multiple times, screaming, "Wake up, doofus! We're in a high-speed, ultraviolent, action-chase sequence, here!"

Still, Crash only lowly responded, "Ouch…"

More gunshots erupted from the cars, and this time, they pierced the limo's rear window. Luckily, no one inside was hit. Daxter gawked at the shattered glass and screamed, "WE'RE GONNA DIE!"

Not on Goofy's watch, however. The court knight bravely held up his Save the King shield to the limo's back window, shielding everyone inside from the raining bullets. He turned back to everyone and yelled, "Somebody get these fellers offa us!"

Jak turned to Russ and asked, "Can you open the sunroof?"

"Yes, sir!"

Daxter watched as the rectangular compartment on the limousine's ceiling slid open, giving way for sunlight. Watching Jak pull out his Morph Gun, the ottsel instructed, "Okay, Jak, try not to use the Peace Maker! It's way too messy for a city."

"Got it, Dax. You're not coming with me?" Jak asked.

Throwing up a thumbs-up, Daxter replied, "Of course, buddy! Somebody's gotta make sure you hit the targets, right?"

Jak then turned to the frightened girl next to him and simply said, "Stay low. I'll be back."

She simply nodded back, and Jak (with Dax on his shoulder) stood up to peer out the sunroof. The rushing air ruffled Daxter's fur as he settled his weasel elbows down on the sunroof's edge, supporting himself. Jak's upper body fit through the opening, and everything from his racer jacket to his short blonde hair fluttered in the breeze. Taking aim, Jak equipped the Blaster modification and immediately started firing shots at the pursuing gray sedan.

Jak and Daxter noticed these shirtless people were also wearing clown-masks, which caused the furry one to yell, "Go back to the circus, freaks!"

"Get down, Dax!" Jak yelled to his companion, pulling his friend back down into the limo and ducking down himself. Bullet shots started raining past and ricocheting off of the limousine's roof. Freddy, their driver, swerved through a stoplight and took the immediate left turn.

Their pursuers' turns weren't as smooth; the gray sedan fell behind the pickup truck, but the All Terrain Vehicle cut through the left turn slickly. The driver of that four-wheeled vehicle brandished a hand-sized submachine gun in his right hand, an Uzi to be exact. The clown-mask wearing driver of the ATV swerved around another charge-bomb from Bentley, resulting in a pale explosion the other vehicles easily avoided.

"Almost!" Ratchet remarked, shooting out the window again. A clicking sound suddenly resounded from his gun; it was his last shot from the Constructo Pistol. "Crud, I'm empty!"

"I told you to bring extra mags!" Clank nagged.

The man on the ATV opened fire via Uzi, reflecting bullets off of Goofy's shield. Keira looked up to Jak and said in an angry tone, "Ruin that jerk's day!"

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Jak and Daxter shot back through the sunroof again, going back to their original positions.

Jak aimed and fired a single shot; the bullet raced through the air (in slo-mo) and landed in the forehead of the clown-villain's mask. The shot to the head instantly propelled the driver off of the ATV and dead onto the pavement.

"Good shot, JAK!" Daxter yelled excitedly. "Hey, use the Vulcan on the rest of those suckers!"

"My thoughts exactly," Jak agreed smirking. With a press of a button, his Blaster morphed into the blue mod, the Vulcan Fury. It looked like a large submachine gun that was held in the same manner of a suitcase. Jak set the weapon down on the roof of the car and pulled the trigger, streaming almost invisible bullets through the air and into hood of the gray sedan.

"Yeah—GET SOME!" Daxter shouted in pure elation.

Soon, the bullets started raining all over the windshield, inevitably incapacitating the driver. As for the passenger, he survived, but the sedan spun out of control and flipped over, crashing into a street lamp.

"WOO-HOO!" Jak yelled in delight, similarly to the way a brown haired boy did the day before on a rollercoaster.

"Nice," Ratchet said, observing the collision. He and Coco had given up on waking up Crash from his state, but they kept his head down, anyway.

Jak felt a tap on the leg. Looking down into the limo, he noticed it was Bentley holding a bomb. The turtle shouted up, "It's a sticky bomb! Hold it by the center so it doesn't stick to you. Make this one quick!"

"Good thinkin', Bentley!" Jak shouted, taking the circular bomb and chucking it at the pickup truck. The explosive stuck to the windshield of the truck and started beeping, causing an immeasurable amount of fear for the driver and passenger. They opened their doors and tried balling out, but the explosive reached its time limit too soon for them. In fiery twist of events, the pickup truck had ended upside in the middle of the street, sending up a smoke trail.

"Is it safe to look up now?" Mario asked, getting up from the limo's floor. "Geez Louise—ya think we woulda had a Super Bowl ticket, or something!"

Jak sat back down on a seat with Daxter next him. He breathed hard as he said, "Whoa…that was close."

"We sure showed those clowns how it's done, eh Jak?" Daxter said cheerfully. "What are you so tired for?"

Russ looked up through the sunroof and solemnly said, "It's not over yet."

"You're kidding," Jak exhaled, looking up as well.

Now that everyone (besides Crash) had looked up at the new threat, every mouth dropped.

"Oh, come on! A helicopter?" Coco complained. "How did they afford this stuff?"

Indeed, there was a helicopter looming over the heroes. It was crudely painted with weird clownish designs, consisting of a giant red smile and green eyes splattered over the spherical windshield. The air vehicle was slowly descending to their moving limousine, trying to keep up with the heroes.

Before anyone could come up with a plan, Crash Bandicoot suddenly opened his eyes and stood up, glaring at the helicopter…through the ceiling. He was most definitely not looking at the helicopter through the obvious sunroof, but through the solid, metal ceiling. Most curiously, though, was the fact that he was still holding his hands up like a beach ball was between them.

Surprised at her brother's sudden rise, Coco started, "Huh? Crash, what are—?"

"Kee-YAA!" Crash suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs. Bringing his hands above his head, Crash formed a glowing white ball of Mojo in his palms. To everyone's surprise the ball actually left his hands, tore through the roof of the limousine, and rocketed into the helicopter, exploding on impact.

Now safe, every hero glanced up at Crash, who was holding his head in agony. "Oh, man," he said in anguish. "I think I was concentrating for too long. That's the last time I mediate on an empty stomach."

Looking around at all of the shattered glass, fearful expressions, and that big gaping hole in the ceiling, Crash scratched his head and asked, "Whoa, what have you guys been up to?"

"Fighting for our lives, maybe!" Ratchet exclaimed. "You were asleep the whole time!"

"Huh?"

"Yeah, Bro, we were getting chased by these clown guys and you were napping," Coco added.

A bit freaked out, Clank asked, "Crash…are you alright?"

"Never better. Why?"

"Then why weren't you responding to any of us?"

Crash thought for a moment before asking sheepishly, "Um…how long was I meditating?"

"About ten minutes," Keira answered.

"Oh sorry," Crash realized. "I was kinda talking to someone."

Daxter shrieked, "Oh, my God! He IS possessed!"

Fearing that Daxter may be right, Coco uneasily asked, "To whom, big brother?"

"I don't know," Crash admitted. "She sounded like a girl."

"Could you see her?"

"Uh…no. That would be weird if I could see someone who wasn't here, Coco."

They arrived at the airport twenty undisturbed minutes later, their limo battered and beat up. Russ went with the heroes onto the first-class jet, but the driver, Freddy, stayed behind. The chauffeur said humorously, "I hope you guys don't have any plane trouble. Seriously though, did no one notice my awesome driving skills?"

As soon as the plane took off, each hero was immediately offered breakfast. There were four seats to each row, each divided into two sections by the aisle. Mario sat in the row nearest the crow's nest on the left, with Jak and Keira lounging on the right. One row behind them was Goofy reclining on the right side of the row. Another row behind him was Ratchet and Clank relaxing on the seats. To the left of the Demolition Duo was Crash and Coco, both resting in their recliner seats. Coco and Ratchet were sitting in the seats nearest the aisle so they could talk.

"How long have you been such a good shot, Ratchet?" Coco asked with a smile.

"Always, since I was a fetus," Ratchet recalled. "Most people think it's all about pointing and shooting, but there's much more to it. It's an inborn skill."

"But that's all you did!" Coco pointed out. "I probably could've done it."

"Without getting shot?"

"Never mind…"

Ratchet laughed a little. He leaned over to see if Crash was still awake. Indeed, the bandicoot was snoozing and not meditating again. Ratchet asked in a hushed tone, "So that was kind of weird, what happened with your brother."

Coco raised her eyebrows. "Which part? When he shoots Mojo through the roof or when he says he was communicating with a girl?"

"Well, all of it."

"I don't know. That kind of thing has never really happened before." Coco shot a quick glance at Crash to make sure he was asleep before saying, "And he's never wasted bad guys like that before, either."

"What do you mean?" Ratchet inquired.

"You remember how he just blew those guys sky-high without a question? He normally wouldn't do that, only if he really needs to. Like with Reiden, Crash had to…" Coco trailed off with a weird look.

"Had to what?"

"Oh, um…nothing," Coco said, shaking away the stray thought. The bandicootess continued, "Well, it would take a lot for Crash to have to kill someone. He's a little soft like that."

"Oh," the Lombax replied. "We should tell him about it soon." Changing the subject, Ratchet asked Coco, "You enjoying the flight so far?"

Coco giggled at Ratchet's shot at small talk. "It's fine, but the service is slow as shi—"

"Pancakes!" The cook came by with his cart of freshly cooked food. Setting plates down on the fold-down tables in front of their seats, he slapped down some pancakes for them to eat. After giving them some forks and knives, he said, "I take tips, you know…"

"Hey, me too, but you don't hear me complaining," Coco rudely replied, dismissing the flight attendant.

The cook rolled his cart forward so the other heroes could get a bite, mumbling multiple curses under his breath. Ratchet quietly laughed before saying, "Well, that was subtle! I'm guessing you've never had a first-class flight before."

Coco reclined back and said, "Nope! Who knew spoiling ourselves could be so fun?"

"Pancakes…"

Crash had uttered the word in his sleep. His nostrils flared, taking in the proverbial scent of blueberry. His tongue then exited his mouth and began licking the window next to him. After tasting no pancakes, he maneuvered it down to the armrest, then to the table, and finally to the plate. Like a magnet, the pancakes in front of him quivered a bit before attaching themselves his tongue, making a strange magnetic noise. After retracting his tongue, he swallowed the pancakes whole and said, "Must find syrup bottle…"

Ratchet stared, completely perplexed by the occurrence that just passed. Coco sort of explained, "Don't ask me how he learned how to do that. I don't know how or when."

Meanwhile, Jak had silently fallen asleep, having already eaten his breakfast. Suddenly, he was awakened by the girl next to him.

"Jak? Can you go get me a pillow?" Keira asked, zero politeness in her voice.

Jak opened an eyelid and called out, "Dax, can you get us some pillows?"

After getting no response, Keira mentioned, "Jak, I asked YOU to get it, not Daxter."

Closing back the eyelid, Jak replied, "Yeah, but I'm a little tired."

The blue-haired girl's tone took a turn for the worst. "Now you're tired?"

"Um…a little, yeah."

"What happened to all that vigor and bravado earlier this morning?"

Jak opened both lids before calmly replying, "Well, that was before we got shot at."

Losing her patience at the speed of a cougar, Keira retorted, "Jak, just get me a pillow."

Even though a certain voice inside the back of his head told him not to say it, the message failed to reach him. Jak regretfully replied, "Can't you just ask one of the stewardesses to get you one?" Oh, crap.

Drops the bomb. In three. Two. One. Keira significantly raised her voice, "First off, they're called flight attendants, grandpa! Second, I'll get it MYSELF!"

She stood up from her seat and stalked off to the back of the plane somewhere. From the row next to Jak, Mario commented with his eyes closed, "Coulda handled dat a little better, eh Lover-Boy?"

Jak ignored the plumber's snide comment and got up from his seat to follow Keira. Still, he couldn't help but wonder where in the heck Daxter was. Seriously, the ottsel's presence could've helped avoid half of that fight.

The blonde young man reached the end of the jet and looked to his left to find a single door that led to a supply closet of sorts. The door was ajar, so he pushed it open and walked into the shack-sized closet, finding Keira struggling to reach a white pillow located on a higher up shelf. Jak quietly strode over behind her and grabbed the pillow for her, earning a surprised yet scornful look from the girl.

She only looked up to him and said, "Thanks."

When she tried reaching for the pillow, Jak pulled it away from her. He uneasily told her, "Sorry for not getting you one earlier."

Keira sighed. "It's fine, Jak." Taking the pillow, she proceeded to walk past the uncomfortable man. She was used to Jak's muteness when it came to speaking from the heart (and from his mouth, in general). Sometimes she wished he could be a bit more open with his words, but alas—

"Keira, wait."

Taken off guard by him, Keira turned around asked in an almost hopeful tone, "Yes, Jak?"

"Do you wanna tell me what's been buggin' you since this morning? Was it something Daxter did?"

Keira laughed to herself. "No, I'm immune to that."

Happy to finally get a smile, Jak continued, "Then what?"

"I guess…I guess it's just this whole racing competition…" Keira replied, a little sadness in her tone.

Jak suddenly thought he understood her whole dilemma. He cocked his head to the side and grinned as he said, "I get it. You're worried about me racing through all these dangerous tracks, and the car chase today made you even more scared for me, right?"

Keira only smiled at her self-proclaimed boyfriend.

"Was I right?"

She laughed again. She thought it was cute that he actually tried to understand her. "Not exactly, but thanks for trying, babe."

Confounded, Jak asked, "Then what is it?"

"I'm jealous."

"Of—?"

"You."

"Why?"

"Because…you get to have all of the fun."

Once again, Jak displayed a look of utter bewilderment. "Um…explain, please."

"All that racing you did yesterday…it just looked really fun on the monitors. I wanna do it so bad, but I know I should leave everything to you as usual."

Jak smirked.

"Grow up," Keira replied to his smirk.

With relief, Jak said, "Wow, had I known that THIS was your issue, I could've told you something a long time ago."

Suddenly aroused, Keira asked, "What might that be, Jak?"

Jak (not so) smoothly said, "I could take you for a ride…er, on one of the ships, of course."

Keira leaned in closer to the blonde man, feeling the intense heat from his face. She asked in her usually low and seductive tone, "And you'll let me drive?"

"Of course…but you have to be my mechanic, first."

"Like this…?" Keira asked, pulling out a wrench from her back pocket. She didn't move an inch away from him.

Jak stared at the tool. "…Is that the same wrench Daxter hit Crash with?"

"Could be," Keira teased, twirling the wrench between her fingers. "So…need something fixed, Jak?"

"Uh…" Jak had absolutely no clue of what to say to something like that. He only said with every hint of anxiety, "And then I'll let you drive."

Somehow, Keira found enough spatial distance between them to lean in closer to Jak. "Promise?"

"Promise…" Jak returned. _Great,_ he thought._ Now I feel like that kid, Sora._

Their noses touched, sparking a special feeling within both teens. They closed their eyes and leaned their chins forward, urging their lips to complete the kiss. Of course, that won't happen until later in my fic, so they were expectedly interrupted by a voice from above.

"It's hot in the closet, tonight!"

Jak and Keira looked up in disbelief.

The orange ottsel was perched on the top shelf, hiding behind a bag of replaceable plastic wheels for the flight attendant's carts.

"He always finds a way…" Jak said in despair.

"Why in the world would you spy on us?" Keira asked with a humiliated look.

Daxter hopped down and defensively answered, "Cool it, sweetheart. I was only looking for a few lint-rollers for my pants when that cook-guy locked me in here! Then you came in."

"Why didn't you say anything then?" the aqua-haired girl asked.

"Well, I was, of course, coming up with a clever way to harass you while you were alone, but then Jak walked in, and I thought, 'Hey, I might as well make the best of it'."

Daxter had left the couple alone as soon as he was sure they were properly seated in the cabin again and set his furry little sights on Coco once more. She was reclined back in her seat, taking a quick nap and looking like eye-candy for Daxter.

The ottsel proceeded to slide down the aisle in front of Coco, flexing his orange, furry arms. He whispered, _"Wake up, baby."_

Suddenly, Coco shot up, awake, as if from a nightmare. "Wha—whoa, who said that?"

Daxter pivoted his feet to show off his furry back. "Twas the god of Orange Lighting and Love, my deary!"

"Oh, hey Daxter," Coco tiredly said, yawning.

"Watching her yawn and stretch, I couldn't help but feel a slight—no, major arousal within my soul," Daxter narrated himself in a Shakespeare-esque tone.

Coco laughed at Daxter's antics and asked, "What are you doing?"

"Drinkin' you in, sweet-cheeks!" Daxter proudly answered, now resting his elbows on Coco's armchair.

"Hm, that's funny. I didn't know I was a liquid. What kinda drink am I?"

"Somethin' with bubbles, that's for sure," Daxter answered with a huge smile and forever-jumping eyebrows.

"Oh joy, is there an off button on you?" Coco asked playfully. Or was she being flirty? She couldn't tell at this point, but Daxter certainly could.

"You have no idea how much I love it when girls ask me that," Daxter informed.

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, I get it all the time, you know, from my millions of groupies and fan clubs. What about you?"

Taken off guard, Coco stumbled, "Huh? Oh, I…" She could only recall Myles. "…don't get complements very often."

"Well, you should," Daxter continued flirting. "And that means I've got you all to myself, then!"

"I wouldn't say that," Coco uneasily said, shooting a quick glance to the napping Lombax across the aisle. _What am I doing? Am I this desperate for attention? Ah, who cares? I'm not in any serious relationship. I do what I want, darn it!_

"Well I would," Daxter continued. He hopped onto the armchair of Coco's seat and struck a muscle-man pose. "I would also say that you've had your eye on me for awhile, now. You know you can't resist la macho de Ottsel!" Daxter flexed just about every muscle in his body before saying in a tense tone, _"You can't resist this!"_

"Sure I can," Coco said before standing up from her seat and walking away to the back of the jet. _That ought to make him try harder._

The bandicootess had gone over to the mini-fridge, undisturbed. When she opened it, she jumped in surprise at the sight of Daxter leaning against the wall of the fridge.

"How did you—?"

"I can see the lust in your eyes, Coco. You want me, but you can't have me," Daxter said in a romantic tone.

Coco slammed the fridge with a smirk and immediately turned to go back to her seat but was instantly taken aback by the presence of Daxter standing in front of her in the aisle with his arms crossed.

"Whoa, how the—?"

"And that is why I have decided to grant you your deepest desire!" the furry ottsel continued.

Rolling her eyes, Coco walked past the ottsel, to her empty seat. She sat down and sighed in relief, thinking she was safe from the amorous ottsel. However, from the trunk compartment above her, Daxter swung down and landed on her lap in catlike fashion.

"You can have me!" Daxter exclaimed, throwing his arms out welcomingly.

"Shh…" Coco shushed. "You'll wake Crash."

"Who cares? He's probably havin' another bout with his demons, anyway—commence loving!"

"Shh!" Coco shushed again. "If I scratch you behind your ear, will you please just shut your yap?"

"Deal." Daxter reclined across the bandicootess' lap, resting his head on the left armrest and his feet on the right. Coco rolled her eyes again and commenced scratching a narrow spot behind the ottsel's half inch ears. Daxter opened an eye and contently said, "Works every time."

* * *

_Let's see…you're up…me? No, I said I wasn't doing this again. Let me call someone…_

Cloud Strife: Hello?

_What up._

Cloud: Um, hey? How did you get my new number?

_I've gotta a proposition for ya; do a bio for me—_

Cloud: No.

_Let me finish. Do a bio for me, and you will get a future appearance in this story before your Deathmatch._

Cloud: …Deal.

Russ Stone

**Age:** 48  
**Gender:** Male  
**Species:** Human

His name says it all. He's as tough as the typical bodyguard, and his composure and determination are always made of stone. This guy was hired by the bigwigs down at Wipeout Co. to safely escort a winner of the first, second, and third round to the next. Now, he's assigned to Jak and his crew, and he will put his life on the line to make sure they aren't taken out by any "agents", but in all honesty, the heroes don't exactly require his service. But hey, everyone needs to feel important, right?

Cloud: Done.

_You have done well. __Man, I'm glad I took the time to refine this chapter. Thanks for being patient!_

_On the next chapter, Jak and his crew arrive at the fabled Warriors Coliseum and are ready to advance to the next round! All they have to do race against four other psychopaths who somehow managed to beat the first. Spoiler alert: Jak wins in some over the top way. Meanwhile, Glen and Gladdus appear in the mountains of Russia, a bit skeptical about Orphco's disappearance. With the help of the Precursors, maybe our mountaineering heroes will be able to carry out that plan of drawing Dr. Mavo out of hiding. Stay tuned for __**Round 2: Tenacious Mar!**_


	45. Round 2: Tenacious Mar!

_Lotta filthy dialogue…_

_Info: Since the sun rises in the east, Link and his group wake up later than Jak and his crew._

_Did ya see that picture of the clown guys? Awesome, right!_

* * *

Chapter 45: Round 2: Tenacious Mar!

The plane landed after two and a half hours of flight, and our legends were more than ready to disembark. After everyone had stepped down off the jet, they all noticed another armored limousine awaiting them in the airport.

As everyone gave the vehicle nervous looks, Daxter spoke for his fellow heroes when he said, "There ain't no way I'm getting in another one of these lunatic magnets."

However, their nerves eased up, and they eventually entered the limo. Much to their gratitude, the ride to the Warriors Coliseum went quite smoothly, save for a pothole and a lethal-looking butterfly that landed on the window nearest Daxter.

At their destination, all ten heroes bounded out the vehicle and took notice of the immense structure that stood in front of them. It was definitely much grander than the last coliseum they journeyed to; there also seemed to be much more of a populace of spectators within this building, seeing as how there was only a chance of a few people getting killed during this round.

Upon walking up to the Warriors Coliseum's entrance, Russ phoned someone and three more men in black suits were summoned to help him escort the heroes to their own private box seats within the arena.

Seeing an approaching dilemma, Crash whispered to Bentley, "Hey, how are we gonna be able to…er, slip away and do that hacking thing?"

"Hold on, I'm trying to think of something," was Bentley's only response.

With the body guards, the racing contestants were guided through the crowded lobbies of people waiting in line for snacks; nearing a flight of stone stairs that probably led to a section of the coliseum's stands, Ratchet suddenly whispered to the turtle, "Think of something fast. I think we're almost in the arena."

Walking up the stairs, Jak also noticed the dilemma regarding Bentley's plan to help him through the race. Bentley wouldn't be able to find the control room if the bodyguards kept their eagle-like eyes on them all. Jak quickly thought of a diversion.

"Hey, uh, does anyone have to go use the restroom before we go to our suite?" Jak asked casually.

"I know Bentley, Ratchet, Clank and I do!" Crash answered, nearly ruining the soundness of the plan.

"Right…" said Ratchet uneasily. "So we're all gonna go take a pee-break. See you all in a bit!"

"Wait," commanded one of the extra bodyguards. "The new policy says I have to go with you all."

Coco complained, "Geez, when did the security get so darn tight?"

"We normally wouldn't have to do this until the finals," the man in black replied, "but since evidence of hacking was found yesterday at every coliseum in Australia, Mr. Biggs has requested that we step up our forces and make sure no one without authorization enters or leaves the control rooms."

They silently walked up the vacant, spiraling stairwell. Trying to sound as casual as possible, Keira said, "Man, those must have been some jerks. Why didn't that Biggs guy just disqualify all of us to make sure he got rid of the cheaters?"

"Because," Russ answered this time, "no contenders means no money. Do you guys still need to go to the restroom?"

"We can hold it," Crash declared.

At the top of the stairwell, the heroes weaved through another lobby of people and stopped at a glass door. After checking that none of the spectators were watching, Russ opened the door and quickly ushered the contenders into the box section.

The interior of the suite was air-conditioned and closed off by glass windows all around. The rest of the coliseum's seats and stands could be seen through the windows, and they had a great view of the arena. Little TV monitors were hooked up along two corners of the room, displaying the empty, underground track that was probably still being prepped for the race.

One of the Wipeout Corp. men in black said to Jak, "The race will start in an hour. You can wait here till then."

When the bodyguard walked out of earshot, Bentley whispered to Jak, "What are we going to do, Jak?"

Jak confidently answered, "Race."

* * *

From his newly purchased sleeping bag, Link abruptly awoke to the sound of chattering outside. He looked around the wretched cabin and made a quick head count of his group. Everyone was here, so who could be talking outside? The owner of the shack? That would be a problem.

He unzipped his bag and stood up from the floor, slipping on his cap and boots in the process. He walked past the slumbering hippopotamus and opened the cabin's wooden and creaky door. There on the patch of dirt in front of the cabin were Glennatus and Gladdus arguing over something when they stopped and turned to the Hylian spying on them from the door.

"Ha! I told you they were in there!" Glen shouted in triumph.

"Yeah, and you also said they were in the last FIVE cabins we barged in on!" Gladdus retaliated. "One of those had a witchcraft meeting being held in it—!"

"They were peaceful nuns!" Glen countered.

"And three of the cabins had couples 'getting it on'—!"

"They were wrestling!"

"And another one had some creepy guy named Smigel!"

"…Yeah, that guy was kinda weird."

Link greeted after a few moments, "Nice to see you guys again."

"It's an honor, Sacred One!" Glen greeted back, bowing down to a knee.

"Butt-kisser," Gladdus mumbled, crossing her arms.

"There's no need for that, Twili," Link dismissed humbly. "Are you two here to take Orphco's place?"

"Yes sir—I mean, pal!" Glen answered.

"Good, I'll wake the others, then."

* * *

"Will the guards please escort the Round Two racers to the docks?" said an Australian voice over the intercom of the suite.

Jak stood up from his seat next to Keira and Mario and popped a few bones in his neck. "I guess that means I'm up."

"It's go-time, Jak," Keira stated shortly before smacking the man on the rear-end like a quarterback from her seated position.

"Um…thanks."

Daxter jumped to his reserved spot on Jak's shoulder and revved, "Let's go win that race, Jak."

Jak and Daxter were safely escorted out of their suite and back downstairs to the arena along with four other contestants, each surrounded by at least two bodyguards. Walking into the center of the cheering, closed-roof coliseum, Jak and Daxter could see a portion of the racetrack up close.

To be brief, it looked as if the track started partially on the surface of the arena and declined into an underground cavern, as if the starting line was at the mouth of an underground tunnel. Jak and Daxter peered behind them to spot another opening in the ground a few yards away from the first one that spat out another section of the racetrack. This led to a slight turn in the track within the walls of the arena, snaking back to the starting line.

"Sweet! This racetrack don't look so complicated!" Daxter concluded contently.

"Don't be so sure, Dax," Jak said cautiously. "It might get crazy underground."

It was then that the Dynamic…ah, crud. I've been calling them the Dynamic Duo, haven't I? And I've been calling Ratchet and Clank the Demolition Duo, right? Whoopsy, I've got something mixed up and scrambled. Anyway, it was then that the Peacemaking Pair (yep, that's their new name) took notice of the other four contestants.

One of them was a half-dingo, half crocodile with a flamethrower strapped on his back. Another was a short Tasmanian Tiger clutching a boomerang in each hand. Another contestant was a kangaroo wearing a red jacket with the word "Brooklyn" printed across his chest and lacking pants in cartoonish fashion. The last appeared to be an overgrown koala of sorts, wearing yellow pants and a ripped, red tank top.

"Get a load of these clowns," Daxter taunted, soon wishing he hadn't because the thought of killer clowns flooded his mind. "Yugh…never mind that, Jak."

Parked before the contestants were five airships lined up at the starting line. They were of the same generic type of ships as the other vehicles in round one, but they were each different colors, like red, blue, purple, green, and yellow.

From speakers located all around the coliseum, an Australian announcer…um, announced, "Gidday, racing fans! Today, we've got Round Two of the locally popular Twisted Wipeout competition! Our brave racers will weave through and through a dangerous course full of twists, turns, jumps, and arbitrary obstacles. It's only by pure luck these daring blokes won't end up in a serious bingle with their cars. Down to business, I say…"

Jak and Daxter had been guided to the purple ship by a few employees, and were currently being helped inside the cockpit when the announcer began naming the racers.

"In the red car, we have a super villain turned nasty, fresh out of Wumpa City's correctional facility—Dingodile!" When the audience had finished cheering him on, the announcer continued, "And in the blue car, we have a local hero to Sydney and various regions of Australia, he wields two boomerangs like an aboriginal ace—Ty!"

The audience cheered the loudest for this boomerang-wielding contestant; he waved and smiled at every spectator of the coliseum. It's also worth noting that when he smiled, he never quite opened the front part of his mouth, leaving only the corners of his mouth to show off his pearly whites.

Next, the announcer spoke over the intercom, "Right, and in the purple car, we have a dark horse from the northern island of Wumpa! Sources say he's a rude dude with an attitude—Mar!"

Daxter shouted angrily, "AND DAXTER!"

"And Dexter!"

The Peacemaking Pair threw their hands up and waved pompously to everyone of the coliseum, throwing in a few winks and index finger-guns. The crowd returned their swagger with more cheers.

"In the green cart, we have famous movie director and local loon of the Outback—Jacky Legs!"

The kangaroo in the red "Brooklyn" coat pulled out some sunglasses from his jacket pocket and slipped them on his face. After doing so, he promptly gave the crowd two thumbs up, earning loud cheers.

"And last but not least in the yellow contraption, we have another super-powered super villain that also recently did time in Wumpa City's correctional facility. He's just been released on account of parole—it's KOALA KONG!"

The giant Koala known as Kong flexed his upper body muscles, resulting in the ripping of the V of his shirt. Some people cheered while most woot-wooted him.

Up in the suite Crash and Coco gawked at the two familiar super villains. Coco began, "My God…I never thought I'd see those guys again!"

"Yeah, it's been like eight hundred games since I've seen Koala!" Crash added.

"You think they're reformed?" Coco asked.

"What does that mean?"

"You know, not bad guys anymore?"

"Could be. We could ask!"

Coco raised an eyebrow. "Maybe…or not. I find it strange that they're BOTH competing. Maybe their working for Cortex…?"

Crash smiled brightly and said, "Well if they're still alive when this is over, we should go ask if their still bad dudes!"

Meanwhile in the cockpit of their violet-colored airship, Jak and Dax mentally prepared for the race. The furry ottsel said anxiously, "Okay, Jak…there's no room for trial and error, here…"

"When have we ever done something through trial and error?" Jak asked curiously.

"Well…there was that time we…um, how about that time when…nope. Hey, isn't it kind of weird that we've always been able to accomplish every adventure on our first try? Like, we haven't died or anything yet. I think we're invincible."

Jak threw a dirty look to his furry friend. "That's easy for you to say! You weren't the one getting beaten, clawed, and stung by Lurkers and Metal Heads the entire time!"

Suddenly, a robotic female's voice spoke to them through a speaker in the vehicle, giving them the same tutorial from the day before, but something was added to the end of it. "Press on the brake and turn the steering wheel to commit a heavy turn. To receive a temporary speed boost, drive your vehicle over one of the neon-lit arrows on the track. Tutorial completed."

"Well that's new," Daxter commented. (1)

The announcer's voice echoed throughout the closed-roof coliseum, "And our brave racers are about to begin their three-lap race!"

Inside each airship and in several different jumbo-sized speakers located all around the stadium, the robotic female's voice rang, "Three…"

Jak looked on at the mouth of the tunnel ahead of him.

"Two…"

Daxter turned and noticed Dingodile was giving him a nasty look. In return, he fanned out his hands and put his thumbs on either side of his head, sticking his tongue out.

"One…"

Every hero in the suite had their eyes glued to one of the monitors on the wall. Keira glanced at the purple ship with a contemptuous look. "Lucky…"

"GO!"

Each driver gassed it and began tearing down the tunnel that led to the underground portion of the track, accompanied by loud cheers from the audience. All five airships began swerving around each other down the track like a flurry of rainbow colors. Jak immediately grabbed first place when he curved around Koala's yellow ship from behind.

"Outta the way, slow-poke!" Jak yelled arrogantly.

The track went into a steep drop further into the tunnel; the Peacemaking Pair suddenly noticed one of those neon-lit arrows on the road, causing the furry one to yell, "Get the speed boost, Jak!"

Jak did just that; he shifted the vehicle to the right and caught the boost, excelling his ship down the steep track. The other racers behind him did the same, keeping themselves on his tail.

"Alright! Jak's winnin'!" Goofy yelled happily, throwing his arms in the air.

Russ suddenly asked, "Why does everyone keep calling him Jack? I thought his name was Mar."

"Wuh-oh," Keira said fearfully.

"Um…" Coco quickly thought of something. "We all used to be in an alternative rock band. We were called J-Unit."

"Yes, Mar's name was Jak the Ripper," Bentley inserted. "Because he ripped those beats!"

"Ripped 'em real good!" Crash quickly added. He pointed over to Mario and said, "We call him Doughnut!"

Mario tensely glared at the bandicoot and threatened, "I am gonna dent ya face in."

"Oh, that Doughnut!" Ratchet fake laughed.

Russ pointed to the robot sitting next to him and asked, "Then what do you call him?"

At the same time, the following people yelled:

Coco: Shiny!

Ratchet: Metal!

Mario: Astray.

"Right…" Clank said awkwardly. "I am Shiny Metal Astray."

Back in the race, Jak and Daxter were still in first place, and the track had stopped dropping downward and was now taking them up a steep incline. At the peak of the incline, the young hero could see a ramp.

"Get ready, Daxter!"

Jak's words came without heed, resulting in Daxter's screaming as they made a large jump across a chasm in the cavern. They safely landed in a familiar opening in the wall and proceeded to speed through the narrow tunnel they had entered.

Behind them, Jacky Legs rammed his way to second place and was now trying to violently bend Jak and Daxter's rear fenders. However, that stopped when Jak drove over another boost pad and sped forward. Somehow, Jacky had missed the pad and fell back to last place when the others behind him hit the boost.

Ty the Tasmanian tiger was steadily easing past Jak as the racers entered a cavernous room full of natural stalactites and stalagmites. Jak and Ty adeptly drove their ships through the jungle of spikes, avoiding collision.

Jacky Legs, Dingodile, and Koala Kong all swerved past spike after spike, successfully gaining a lead on Jak and Ty. The racers exited the room and began scaling another steep incline that led to a light from above.

"I see the exit!" Daxter shouted excitedly. "Man, I HATE those stalagmites and stalactites!"

"We still have to deal with those two more times, Dax," Jak informed.

The racers reached the end of the tunnel and returned to the surface again, hearing the deafening crowd. They immediately veered right and shot through the tunnel that they had started through, disappearing into the cavern again.

The announcer…um, announced again, "The first lap has been completed! Dingodile is in first, Koala in second, Jacky Legs in third, Mar in forth, and Ty in last."

While the others watched Jak's vehicle on the monitor closely, Coco observed Dingodile's and Koala's airships. She noticed they weren't fighting each other for first place. Something was definitely fishy…

Jak and Daxter had taken the speed boost on the drop and quickly sped past the kangaroo in the green aircraft. The heroes reached the bottom of the drop and began racing up the first incline again. While trying to get his place back, Jacky Legs misjudged the ramp's location at the incline's peak and wound up gassing it too hard and slamming into the wall above the opening, exploding on impact.

Pained "Oohs" and "Holy Bejesus!" rang throughout the crowd and suites. The announcer came on energetically, "It seems Jacky Legs has been eliminated! Don't worry folks, he should be able to walk that off."

Jak and Daxter ventured into the cavernous room and began dodging spikes for their lives. The two ex-convicts in front of them seemed to be having trouble with the whole "dodging" part, because Koala drove straight through three stalactites and Dingodile smashed through two stalagmites.

This cleared an entryway for the Peacemaking Pair, making that part of the race somewhat easier for them. However, one final collision with a stalactite caused Koala's vehicle to spin out of control and slam into a hefty stalagmite, tearing the aircraft in half. The pieces and debris bounced and clanged along the track and through the tunnel, some of it ending up on the surface again.

"Whew, good thing that guy was garbage," Daxter remarked as they drove past the debris.

The announcer came on again, "And Koala Kong has been eliminated by a split decision! Come on, that was funny!"

It wasn't over yet; with Ty behind him and Dingodile in front, Jak crossed the starting line and started the third and final lap.

"Almost there, Dax," Jak informed his furry friend.

The red car ahead of them caught the boost on the drop inside the tunnel, Jak and Ty doing the same. All three racers made the approaching jump and entered the cavernous area once more. Now that some of the stalactites and whatnot were broken and cleared, Jak found it easy to gain the lead on Dingodile.

"You're mine, buddy!" Jak shouted.

Dingodile shook his fist at Jak; his vehicle was performing poorly account of the stalagmites he smashed through on the previous lap.

Jak took the speed boost at the end of the room and immediately gained first place. On their way past the animal breed mix, Daxter gave him the same taunting look as he did at the beginning of the race.

Inevitably, "Mar" took an amazing lead as he sped up to the surface, and he ultimately won the second round of the Twisted Wipeout competition.

"I don't believe it, mates! The dark horse from Wumpa Island has taken home the gold and will be moving on to round three! Better luck next time, Dingodile and Ty!"

After the racers had gotten out of their cars, they were immediately assaulted my news reporters. While Dingodile had simply disappeared and slipped off to somewhere else, Jak and Ty were currently being interviewed, the former of whom was holding his plaque to the third round.

One woman asked, "Mr. Mar, how does it feel to be getting one step closer to having a free wish?"

"Good, I guess…"

Another man asked, "What will you wish for?"

"Nothing important…"

"Like what, Mr. Mar?"

"Personal space."

Suddenly, Daxter appeared on the scene. "Don't mind him, folks! We're gonna wish to end world hunger and open up new schools for the children! Oh yeah, and maybe open up a few new beaches for our hundreds of hot fan babes!"

"You know you only get one wish, right?" the woman notified.

"Yeah, but we'll probably be doing this for years! That's apart of the road to glory!" That was when Jak decided to roll his eyes.

"And you, Mr. Ty, how does it feel to be eliminated in the second round?"

The Tasmanian tiger sheepishly said, "Well, it burns like a mother, that's for sure!"

"Did you enjoy racing against someone as good as Mar?"

"Yeah, it was quite enjoyable. I'm also glad I'm still in one piece."

"Speaking of which, Jacky Legs and Koala Kong are alive. Do you two wish them a speedy recovery?"

Jak bluntly stated, "No."

Ty laughed and said to the hero, "Ahaha, you rippa!"

Meanwhile, the others had been watching the interviews in the suite. Hearing Ty call Jak "ripper", which was actually just a term for enviable person, Russ reacted, "Oh, you guys weren't kidding…"

* * *

For most of the day, Glennatus had been floating up in the sky, trying to draw Dr. Mavo from his laboratory, but nothing but birds and bugs had greeted him. "Man, I'm bored…" he said to himself in his levitating reclined position.

Link and the others had been carefully watching the Precursor, staying vigilante in case Draksin or Mavo ever showed up. Fortunately and unfortunately, respectively, neither villain had shown themselves for the two and a half hours Glen had been in the air.

"Hm…" Link pondered, sitting down on one of the stumps in front of the cabin. He turned to the young Precursor next to him and asked, "Do you know what time of the day Jeycko was attacked?"

Gladdus replied, "Yeah, it was like seven in the afternoon."

Link turned to the rest of his group and suggested, "Perhaps we should continue this around that time."

"Sure," Sly Cooper replied. "What do we do until then?"

"We can spend the day looking for Mavo's lab."

Almost everyone groaned, earning a ticked look from Link. "I'm sorry, is that not a priority for any of you?"

"Of course it is," Sora answered for everyone.

"Then why won't you help look for the laboratory?"

"Because your way is stupid," Sora bluntly stated.

"That may be the only way we can find it without putting someone's life on the line!" Link exclaimed.

"Walking around out in the open is supposed to be safer for everyone?"

Sighing, Link said his favorite word. "Fine. What do you suggest we do?"

"I say…we go back into town!" said the Chosen One.

"That sounds productive!" Murray sincerely acclaimed.

"Better than doing nothing," said Riku.

"Mm, hmm!" Crunch grunted in agreement.

Link angrily replied, "Guys! This isn't a vacation!"

"We know that," Sora easily said. "We won't go to the amusement park again. Maybe we could ask around to see if anyone's seen any suspicious things in the mountains."

"That's not a bad idea, Sora," Kairi commended.

Aku Aku merely commented, "Sora's the one coming up with all these good ideas. Maybe he should be team-leader…oh, crud. Something tells me I shouldn't have said that."

Link growled, "I'M the team-leader!"

Sora stood up as he protested, "Then let's put it to a vote!"

"No way!"

"Scared?"

Sly Cooper had had about enough of the childish garbage. Standing up, he gruffly interrupted Sora and Link's squabble, "CAN IT, you two!"

Glen whispered to Gladdus, "Why does that sound so familiar?" (2)

The thief raccoon told the bickering teenagers, "I've had about enough of your childish garbage! From what I've seen, I don't think EITHER of you could do a decent job leading us. You're too busy fighting with each other to get any LEADING done. From this point forward, _I _am the team-leader."

Like troubled toddlers, Sora and Link glared off to the side and submitted to Sly, "Okay…"

"Good," Sly replied, glad to take control. "Now, we're gonna go ahead into town to follow through with Sora's idea."

Link crossed his arms and mumbled, "It takes long to get there."

"That's why we're going to teleport there, right Precursors?" Sly quickly countered.

Glen quickly perked up and answered, "Yeah, that's easy enough. You guys ready to go right now?"

Crunch, who was listening to a song on his iPod, responded, "Yep! _We're ready to go right now! We're ready to go right now!"_

Meanwhile, in the brightly lit laboratory of Dr. Lusef Petrovich Mavo, the scientist himself was ailing in his desk.

In the center of his lab, Mavo was clutching his head in slight anguish. His attire consisted of his checkered lab coat and pants. He knocked over a canister of pens and pencils from the surface of his desk with his free arm as he reached for the clock located nearby. Looking at the time of one o'clock in the afternoon, Mavo muttered irately under his breath, "Where in blazes is she? She was supposed to deliver the antidote last night!"

Suddenly, he heard knocking on the metal door that led to the dark cave in the outside world. The knocking was soon accompanied by a British female's loud voice: "Hello? Is the doctor in there?"

Dr. Mavo immediately stood up and ventured to the door, muttering, "Why is that wench yelling…?"

Dr. Mavo quickly typed a four digit code into the automated door lock system on wall next to the door. After doing so, the metal wall slid down to reveal Arden Calypso patiently waiting with a smile across her face. Her apparel mainly consisted of the green street dress and heels Draksin had charmed her with and a few bracelets.

"Hey, Doc."

"Doc's" only response was to hold out his hand, expecting something to be dropped onto it.

Calypso raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"You know what I want, now hand it over."

"Hmph, so much for foreplay," Calypso teased.

Dr. Mavo barked, "You know what I'm talking about!"

"Don't get so hissy, Lusef," the sorceress said slowly. Her eyes wandered over his shoulder. "Aren't you going to let me in?" she asked innocently.

Without a word, Dr. Mavo glared for a few seconds before turning back to his laboratory. Arden assumed this was an invitation.

The sorceress followed the doctor down a short flight of stairs and into the illuminated, underground room. "Touch nothing," was the only command Mavo gave his guest. Oh, and, "Give me my antidote."

Arden began laughing lowly, drawing the doctor's attention. "Don't you find it odd that you're supposed to be a sophisticated, top of the line scientist, and you can't even cure your own sickness?"

"No one asked YOU!" Dr. Mavo snapped. "And it's not a sickness."

"Then what is it, Doctor?"

"It's my second form…but I can't fully control it yet."

Arden smiled again. "So what, you plan to keep dosing yourself with…" she pulled out a vaccine inside a small vial. "…these until Draksin can teach you to fully control your second form?"

"Yes, that's the arrangement."

"Here." Arden tossed the vial up in the air, and it ultimately landed in Mavo's right hand.

As Mavo began opening the vial to drink its medicine, Arden strolled over to a dormant computer monitor and pressed a key. The monitor's giant screen flashed to life and a display of the pod-life-form's strengths and statistics appeared onscreen. "Boring…" Arden remarked.

"I said touch nothing!" Lusef yelled across the lab. "Don't screw up my work."

"Relax," Calypso replied. "Is this the little project you and Mefisto have been working on?"

"Yes, now leave it alone."

"What else have you been doing?"

For once, Lusef didn't seem discontent to answer her. "I've actually been keeping a close eye on my stalkers."

Arden turned away from the screen and leaned against the computer desk. "Do tell…"

"It turns out that the heroes those Precursors dragged to this planet are now here looking for me. From what I've seen, it's a wild goose chase and they haven't even gotten close to my laboratory."

"How can you see them?"

"Easy." Dr. Mavo walked over to the computer desk Calypso was leaning on and promptly commanded, "Move."

With a huff, she did as she was told, and Mavo immediately started opening up security files. Strangely, a video of Sly Cooper facing the camera opened up. He seemed to be asking where toothbrushes were sold.

"With my robotic spy cameras I've planted all around the mountains, I can essentially see their every move." He switched the feed to newer footage of Precursor Glennatus floating up in the sky. "It seems their plan is to draw me out from my lab."

"Are you going to take the bait?" Calypso asked.

"Of course. That is how the game is played, after all." He switched the security feed to another recording from the day before. "I also believe I've found the bandicoot Sin is looking for." A close-up shot of Crunch gleefully spinning around in a teacup is shown.

"So he's the one Mefisto wants. A muscular fellow, isn't he?" Calypso observed. She watched as Lusef displayed more shots of the heroes trailing after him. When she saw Link, she stopped him. "Who's that?"

"The beings of the Twilight Realm call him by the name of Link," Mavo answered. "He's obviously one of the sacred heroes not from this world."

"Well, he's quite the looker, if you ask me."

"I didn't."

"Don't get snippy. Got anymore shots of him…?" Calypso then took it upon herself to take the mouse away from Mavo and start clicking away.

Mavo only crossed his arms as the sorceress brought up an image of Link and Kairi sitting on the gondola. Calypso noticed how he had his arm around the girl next to him. "Aw," Arden cooed. "Look at him…with that other girl. What's he see in her?"

"You are _psychotic_," Mavo analyzed.

Ignoring the doctor's diagnosis, Arden kept glaring at Kairi. "Who's she supposed to be?"

Mavo raised an eyebrow. "You don't recognize her? She's a Princess of Heart, the one called Kairi, if I remember correctly."

"Princess, eh? Oh, well. I do hate getting my hands dirty—"

"You're not going to do a thing," Mavo strictly commanded. "Go back to your racing job. You're not needed here anymore. This is MY territory."

Calypso delicately brushed her hands along her dress. "Well, you sure know how to make a girl feel special." She winked and asked tenderly, "You sure you don't want me to stay here a bit longer?"

Dr. Mavo's glazed stare accompanied his resistance. "Don't you have a cage to be dancing in somewhere?"

"Pfft," Arden hissed, rolling her eyes. "I'm starting to miss Reiden. He was stupid enough to actually take the chance."

"Are you still here?"

Growing weary of the doctor's unfriendly behavior, Arden turned and made for the exit. "Before I fly off, I just want to tell you that everyone thinks you should just let the demon inside you take over. Maybe then you'll have some control."

"Whatever."

* * *

Crash exited one of the coliseum's men's rooms (blokes dunny, to be hip) and checked his zipper to make sure it was closed. Not good. Wide open.

Having much difficulty, he jumped around in place with a strained look, trying his hardest zip up the infernal contraption. Suddenly, he stopped himself, realizing he was doing this all in public. He had two choices: keep hopping around like an idiot or go back in the bathroom like a sane person.

Gross. There was something yellow on the doorknob to the men's room. Right then and there, his mind was made.

Crash continued jumping and straining his himself, earning a bead of sweat on the side of his face. Wait—he just remembered something, something that made him stop jumping immediately. The memory of the last time he zipped his pants up too fast haunted his mind.

Which brought him to his next idea: maybe there was something caught in the zipper? He looked down again to see the hem of his tucked-in white shirt caught within the links of his zipper. He laughed a little to himself at the amusing sight.

"Hehehe…shirt-wiener."

"Are you finished, yet?" Coco asked. She was standing against the adjacent wall. She saw everything.

"Whoa…I really could've used some help."

"Help?" Coco snippily repeated. "You mean like how I helped you this morning? And again on the plane. And then again before the race started. Every time you were cavorting around with your zipper, I would say, 'Check your shirt, Crash.' 'Check your shirt, Crash.' 'Check your shirt, Crash.' This time, I thought, 'What the heck? I'll let you figure this one out for yourself so you can LEARN. So far, you haven't learned a freakin' thing—in fact, you probably lost some learning since this morning, so that's like a negative variable! You think I enjoy saying the same crap over and over again? Like I'm some kind of electronic helpdesk lady that online users can click repeatedly to make her voice sound funny? And then they learn nothing in the end and wind up giving up on the World Wide Web? Is that what you want, Crash? You want to give up on your zippers? I, for one, am definitely not having a brother who can't zippen up his own stupid zipper on his own stupid pants tag along with me when I go to the mall or any other place with sane people. You know why? Because that makes me look uber-dumb, not just in front of the sane people, but in front of my own self-righteous conscience. And when I don't bring my Neanderthal brother around with me, that makes me look superficial and sanctimonious, and otherwise just not a very good sister. Understand? Are you listening? Do you have anything to say for yourself, Crash?"

"What the heck does cavorting mean?" the confused bandicoot asked.

Sighing, Coco shook her head and said, "C'mon, Crash. The others are waiting for us."

The bandicoots began walking through the crowded lobby to get back to the suite where everyone (minus Jak and Dax) was waiting. Suddenly, they both stopped and admitted at approximately the same time, "We're lost."

"Need a map, mates?" said an eerily familiar voice from behind them.

Still facing the other way, Coco whispered to Crash, "Can you do me a favor and check to make sure that isn't Dingodile standing behind us?"

"I don't know. It kinda sounded like him," Crash replied uneasily.

"Will you just check?"

"What if it's not him? Then I'll be looking at some random guy. He probably looks weird!"

"Well, I don't want to look at some weird guy, either!"

"Okay, at the same time, then," Crash declared. "Three, two, one…" Neither bandicoot turned around. Crash chastised, "You didn't even move!"

"Neither did you, Crash!" Coco retorted.

Dingodile exclaimed before walking in front of the siblings, "Oh, for goodness' sake!"

After a long pause, Crash loudly greeted, "…Hey, it's Dingodile! We haven't seen you for, like, the last three games! Where have you been, man?"

"Prison," was Dingodile's short answer.

"Oh, yeah…" Crash said awkwardly.

Coco pried casually, "So…you still hittin' the grind with Cortex or have you turned a new leaf?"

"I'm definitely not in league with Neo, anymore," the Australian cross-species reptile replied. "While Kong and I were in prison, we made a pact to find a way to get back at Neo for wasting our lives with his always-failing plans of taking over the world. After we got out, we couldn't quite think of a good way to really burn that little runt. Then, those kiosks started raining down all over Australia, and we immediately thought of the perfect way to get even with him."

"I'm guessing you wanted to win the races so you could wish to rule the world yourselves?" Coco presumed.

"Not exactly. We just wanted enough fame and fortune to rub it in the runt's face." Changing the subject, Dingodile asked, "So when'd you learn how to speak?"

Assuming he was talking to him, Crash happily replied, "About a week ago, Coco invented something for my brain to help it learn…stuff!"

"I see. Oh well, I'd better be off to check on Kong." Dingodile turned around and began trekking away from his once-sworn enemies.

Crash called after the former minion, "Hey—congratulations on ditching Cortex!"

Dingodile turned his head and plainly replied, "Bein' someone's slave for 'alf your life isn't exactly an ambition of mine anymore. Bein' a slave kinda sucks. I hope neither of you two are one."

When the dingo-croc disappeared within the crowd, Crash suddenly felt a feeling of déjà vu.

_Reiden told me the same thing,_ the bandicoot thought to himself.

* * *

"Sorry, I have not seen or heard of laboratoy," Mikhail Masoluv, the clerk of the general store, responded to Crunch's and Sly Cooper's question. "Especially secret one."

"Hm, well thanks anyway," Sly said dejectedly.

"Are you and your comrades archeologists?"

"Sort of," Crunch answered. "We also kinda need to save the world."

"Right, I see. An archeologist's work is never done, just like the American movie, _National Treasure_!"

Sly replied, "Um, sure. Well, if you hear something about it from anybody, please tell us the next time we visit."

After exiting the store, Sly and Crunch met up with their waiting 'comrades' and made sure to tell them the negative news. Sighing, the raccoon declared, "I guess we can head back up to the shack, now." He seemed to notice a few new items within his fellow heroes' possession. "Did you guys shoplift some stuff again?"

"Oh, come on!" Crunch exclaimed. "You guys weren't even in the store with us!"

"We went to the one next door," Murray proudly answered, showing off some leather gloves he acquired. "Does the yellow color of the gloves clash with my pink skin?"

"No, Murray, that's _so_ your color!" Kairi sincerely answered.

"Well, I didn't take anything," Aku Aku acknowledged.

"Neither did I," Link added, still in a bad mood.

"Riku made me take something," Sora blamed his friend, holding up a cheap World Cup hat.

"And I gotta bag of Russian candy!" Riku did show off an oddly marked baggie full of small candy.

Gladdus pointed to her blonde head, which contained a new baseball cap with the price tag still hanging on it, and briefly said, "Check it."

Crunch crossed his arms and turned to Donald. "Now what did you steal, fool?"

"WAK!" the duck mage yelled in anger. He jumped and said, "I didn't steal nothin'!"

When Donald jumped, something from underneath his blue hat caused the mage's head garment to fall to the dirty, paved ground. It was some sort of gray diamond rock, most likely a plastic ornament. With a sheepish expression, Donald added, "Except for that…"

"Donald, what IS that?" Crunch asked, staring at the ornament.

"It's a car freshener. I got the Steamy Winter smell!"

Soon after our heroes stopped bickering about the actual ethics of being an honest hero, they moved along through the town, searching for the way back up to the mountain. The sun still glowed brightly over the Sayan Mountains, lighting up the young afternoon. As they neared the rocky area that connected the town with the hiking trail, the heroes noticed a small, circular, and purple-striped tent had been set up in the area.

"When did THAT get here?" Sora asked, confused at the new sight.

"I don't know. Maybe we should go in?" Sly suggested.

"Couldn't hurt," Link agreed.

"What if that's someone's house?" Glen cautioned.

Gladdus blinked and stated, "NOW you're worried about who's home."

Murray took note of the dangling beads in front of the tent's wide entrance. "Actually, it looks like one of those guru dwellings! My old master used to live in something like that, except smaller."

"Let's go in," Sora concluded. After the others gave him an uneasy look, he said, "What? No one ever seems to mind whenever we go into strange places that don't belong to us. Let's be honest; we do it ALL THE TIME!"

"So true," Link, for once, agreed with the Keyblader. (3)

They entered through the wide tent's beaded entrance one at a time, taking in the ominous sights of dead stuff hanging from all sorts of locations, the plethoric amount of random bottles and pots laying everywhere, the entrancing aroma of…whatever it was, and the lone wooden table in the center. The air seemed to be much cooler inside the tent for some reason.

"Looks like nobody's home…" Donald began, horrified by the many creepy sights of harvested feathers lining the tent's walls.

A disembodied woman's voice suddenly greeted the intruding heroes: "Hello, there."

Crunch put up karate-hands in surprise. "Whoa! Who said that?"

A cloud of smoke appeared behind the bandicoot, who jumped away in fright. Once the vapors cleared, a woman dressed in a fortuneteller's clothes stood idly by. She wore mostly purple clothing, including a purple shawl draped over her shoulders and a scarf tightly wrapped around the bottom portion of her face. The scarf also encompassed her brown hair, a little of which fell from the sides. The fortuneteller stared at each hero and Precursor with wide green eyes, as if trying to figure them out.

Sora began apologizing, "Sorry, we didn't mean to intrude."

"Don't feel bad," the fortuneteller said in a silky Russian accent behind the scarf. "Fate always has its way of letting me meet the right people. Tell me, do any of you believe in fate?"

"Sometimes," Riku responded for his fellow heroes.

"Good enough," the lady said. "My name is Os Pylac. Sit down. In the chairs, please."

Murray began, "What chairs—?"

He immediately looked behind to see a few wooden stools magically poofing up behind him and each of the other heroes. Os Pylac added, "By the table, please."

Each hero pulled their stools up next to the table and sat down, curious as to what the clairvoyant was planning. She continued, "Normally, I would charge an expensive price for a fortune to be told, but I believe you people are special. It will be more of a pleasure for me to be the one to foresee your lives, so I do this for free."

"Thanks, lady!" Crunch thanked. "We really need to know if we'll ever find what we're looking for."

"I see…" Os deeply said. She reached under the table to grab an empty glass bottle. Opening it, a collection of multicolored sands began to mysteriously sail through the air from the bottle and pile up on the table in the center of the tent. "You nine want something you can't find…"

"Yes, it is a secret laboratory," Link added.

"And you believe it is only just out of your reach, yes?" asked the fortuneteller, blinking at the warrior.

"Sure, I guess," the Hylian replied. He became a little nervous as he felt the mystical psychic's green eyes pierce through him.

Everyone watched as the different colors of the sands began churning around in the air in a hypnotic way. Gradually, the sands joined together to form what roughly looked like a miniature mountain. From a dark cave of that mountain's base, the sand seemed to explode.

The fortuneteller smirked under her scarf. "I can't say where, but I think you will find what you're looking for in time."

At that news, everyone turned to each other and smiled, thinking they had already found the lab and beaten Dr. Mavo.

The colors of the sands suddenly converted into dark, ashy colors, grabbing everyone's attention. After a moment of watching, Os stated, "I think you all have much more to worry about than a secret laboratory…"

Aku Aku asked, "What do you mean?"

"The sands tell me you all will face torment beyond your greatest fears. Every single one of you here with me today will perish in deep despair…"

Some of the grains of sand began to take shape of small people; they were arranged by thirteen or fourteen small characters surrounding one tall one. The one in the middle drew a sword…and began hacking the surrounding figures in half.

"Some of you will face harsher miseries…"

The sands separated and joined again to form what looked like someone knelt down, screaming in pain, and pieces of his or her body were evaporating into the air. No one at the table could quite distinguish who the sand-figure was supposed to be.

"Others will wish for death…"

Next, an image of what looked like a person rigidly bound to something appeared. This person's head seemed to lazily droop forward, showing a sign of depravation. The heroes also couldn't tell who this person was supposed to represent.

"From what I see, you all will face true darkness," Os finished. The sands drifted back into the bottle she was holding.

"Well, that was a little…dark," Glen remarked.

"Been there, done that," said Riku disinterestedly.

"Simple premonitions don't scare The Murray," the hippo declared.

"Is there any way we can change our fate?" Aku Aku asked, deeply interested.

Os positively replied, "Everyone can always change their destiny, even when a prophecy holds differently. It all depends on our choices - who we make them for, and how fast we choose to make them."

* * *

_1) I have tested this myth with my R.C. cars. The cars' speed did NOT change when I drove them over painted arrows on my kitchen floor. Shortly after doing so, however, my mother yelled at me for painting the kitchen's floor._

_2) Remember when Sly told off Glen and Gladdus in __**Lost Dreams and Ramen**__? _

_3) Also, I have yet to play an adventure game where I enter someone else's house and they promptly kick me out after I catch them whittling something suggestively shaped out of wood. ("Uh…this is um…this is for…uh…you know what? GET OUT! JUST GET OUT!")_

_Two things I stole in this chapter: That "so much for foreplay" line I stole directly from **Uncharted 2**, and Dr. Mavo is…pretty much just like Dr. Jekyll but better because I'm writing about him. **Uncharted** rules!_

_Our heroes in Russia learn they have a dark future to look forward to if something doesn't change. Not very enlightening is it? Does the fortuneteller's news mean the same for the other legends competing in the racing tournament? Only time will tell…_

…_And another Demonic Entry. Next chapter, even villains have desires. Reiden wanted control, Calypso wants to be adored and worshipped by millions of people, and Mavo wants to instill fear in all those who oppose him and his sciences. What of the last two villains? You will know soon. _


	46. Philosophy of Evil

_Get ready for a lot of Hybrid-canon info on Crash's world, so pay close attention to Draksin's explanations._

_Also…what is Os Pylac spelled backwards?_

Chapter 46: Philosophy of Evil

A small boat slowly sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of the night, heading stateside. The sky dictated a full moon, which gloomily illuminated the raft's deck. Sitting cross-legged on the small, rectangular deck were two shady men, both of whom were facing each other and appeared to be concentrating in a deep state of meditation.

One of them was a strange-looking man with a wolfish face, long dreadlocks snaking from his head, and short, light brown fur all around his body. Barefoot, he wore black pants and a long, faded gray coat with the hood down. The coat was opened to expose his furry chest, and the sleeves were ripped off to reveal his muscular arms. The other man seemed more human than the wolfish creature; he wore mostly black clothing, including black boots, pants, and a cloak with the hood over his head. The edges of his cloak were lined with purple fabric, which glowed like silk in the full-moonlight. While both men seemed to be deeply concentrating with their eyes shut, there also seemed to be a dreamlike struggle taking place between the two. The wolfish man seemed to be losing the battle.

Finally, the man with dreadlocks awoke from his meditative state, panting as he said, "Grr, you beat me again."

"Don't feel ashamed, Biff," the man in black replied emotionlessly. "You almost had me on the ropes."

"Hmph."

"Well now, I say we pick up on controlling your second form." The man pulled back his hood and stood up on the deck. The man had a quiet-looking face, but he also looked like he hadn't shaved for a few days. Light stubble had aligned his jaw and upper lip. His eerily yellow-colored eyes were draped over by a few strands of his short black hair; this of course, was none other than Draksin Mefisto.

"Y-yes, my master," the wolfish creature known as Isaac Bifford replied, trying his best to cover up his shame. Standing to his feet, he began absorbing a considerable amount of Mojo from the ocean into his body. His dreadlocks strangely began levitating in the air, and his gray coat started fluttering around.

"Almost there," Draksin commented, crossing his arms.

Suddenly, Isaac's Mojo capped off and his fur was now glowing a golden type of color, slightly illuminating a section of the ocean.

"Great job, Biff," Draksin promoted his student.

After relinquishing his power, Isaac thanked modestly, "Thank you, master. It was easier for me to do on account of the full-moon tonight."

"Don't be so modest, my boy. You're _far_ stronger than any of my sons could ever dream to be." Draksin stood up and walked over to the boat's edge, leaning forward on the rail and glancing out at the passing ocean.

Isaac joined Draksin in watching the moonlight glimmer on sea. After a long silence, Isaac finally spoke up, "Master, can you tell me why you let her, the one who beat you, talk to him?"

"Articulate yourself, Biff," Draksin responded, not quite understanding his pupil's question.

"Why…why did you let Naomi speak with Crash Bandicoot earlier this morning?"

"I don't see why that concerns you."

"Well…it's just that…if she isn't going to join us, then why help her at all?"

Draksin formed a grin. "Isaac, have you forgotten that before battling your enemies, you must first understand them? When I let Naomi mentally connect with Crash, she revealed a lot of personal information about his and her homeland. They're not even from this pathetic ball of dirt."

"They're not…?" Isaac repeated in disbelief. "How is that possi—"

"That is why we need more time to study our enemies, Biff."

"I see, master."

Draksin started noticing Isaac's nervous expression. Since this was a natural skill of his, he decided to start dissecting his pupil's emotions. "Tell me, Isaac, do you have feelings for her?"

This question had taken the wolf-man completely by surprise. "Uh—n-no, my master. What makes you suggest something like that?"

"Isaac, it's perfectly fine if you do. You're not completely filled with darkness yet. If fact, the more darkness you have, the darker the feelings for other people become. Honestly, I can relate. I remember a woman named Mara that I was in love with seventeen years ago. She couldn't accept me for the villain I was, but I still wanted her for my own. Then one day, I had two choices: get strong enough to bring every world in ruins, or give up my evil ways so I could have Mara's heart. Naturally, I took the best of both worlds." Draksin said that last sentence with a chuckle.

Although most anybody wouldn't understand why, Isaac frowned deeply from the Dark One's laughter. He tried hiding his discontent by freezing his glare on the passing ocean, but Draksin once again noticed his emotions.

"What is your problem?" Draksin patiently asked his disgruntled student. However, he didn't give him much time to respond. "I'm guessing you don't like that aspect of **my existence**. Three words: deal with it."

With a low murmur, Isaac replied, "…Yes, my master."

Draksin eased up and said, "I'll tell you something about the emotion of love. It's nothing more than a self-destructive mix of lust and physical desire. Everything else that goes with love is simply a budding of those two. You eventually have your wish…and you move on."

The words seemed cruel to Isaac's ears. "But master—"

Before the wolf-man could fully counter Draksin's thesis on love, he was interrupted by his superior: "Eventually, you will understand these types of things when you come to attain my kind of power."

Mavo smirked at the bright computer screen, reflecting light off of his blue eyes. He had his hands behind his back, standing confidently tall. He was obviously doing much better than earlier that day, both mentally and physically. And the nine morons' antics on the computer screen were quite amusing.

On that screen was an actual live feed of his stalkers having a campfire by the shack. The large and muscular bandicoot he assumed to be Crash was dancing around the fire with his music player device. The camera panned to the left and right to show the other heroes laughing their young heads off without a care in the world. One of them had pointy brown hair and had been laughing so hard, he slipped and fell off the tree stump he was sitting on. This caused the pink hippopotamus of the group to laugh and choke on the s'more he had cooked over the fire. A duck immediately sprung up, claimed he knew what to do, and began beating the hippo's back with his feathery fists.

Mavo chuckled and humorously considered, "Maybe they'll kill each other."

A black mist formed behind the doctor, who was expecting it. The mist took form of Draksin, who greeted, "How are you, doctor?"

"Absolutely fine, Sin," Mavo replied lightheartedly.

"I'm aware you have some footage of our furry little hero for me, correct?"

"You're looking at it."

Draksin walked to Mavo's right side and peered at the monitor's screen. He looked around for the only bandicoot at the campfire and smiled. "So he's the one."

"Think he might replace Isaac?" the doctor asked.

Surprisingly, Draksin wholeheartedly answered back, "I'm almost certain of it."

The Dark One took this time to peer at everyone else at the little laughter party on the screen. "They all have so much light in them, it sickens me…Doctor, can you pan the camera so I may see the rest of them?"

"No problem."

The camera panned to the right to show the pointy brown-haired boy being helped up by a raccoon. Draksin said, "Oh, look. It's that raccoon from the annoying thief family. Remember Clockwerk?"

"Ahaha—how can I forget? He was basically your inferior double."

"Yes, he was always forming teams to try and take down the infamous Cooper family. But one thing his team lacked was immortality. They kept growing old or sick and dying on him. He didn't have the ability to give his colleagues everlasting life as I do."

"And we are forever in your debt for that, my liege."

The brown-haired boy onscreen sat back up, rubbing a sore spot on the back of his head. Draksin glared his tainted yellow eyes at the boy's pure blue ones. How could he have forgotten that the Precursors of Twilight would undoubtedly go after the Chosen Keyblader? A boy with that much light was definitely a problem for Draksin's plan of spreading negative energy (a.k.a. Bad Mojo).

Mavo noticed his superior's slight unrest. "Are you thinking about Sora?"

"Yes, but I am not worried. I can still control him at any time."

The doctor crossed his arms and stated with a grin, "Now that is something I would like to see."

Draksin grinned back. "In time, my friend. I wouldn't want to mess up your surveillance's harmony. In the meantime, let's discuss the entity living inside your soul."

"Good, I've looked forward to this meeting. Can you tell me why my second form is so hard to control?"

Draksin put his hands behind his back and walked along the lab's perimeter, observing many box-shaped chambers of sorts. He finally answered, "Your soul had its own twisted past when I discovered you. You do remember your sudden changes in mood, don't you? Your second demeanor was uncontrollable. It only makes sense that your demon form is, too."

"So how can I better control it?"

"You must let the demon take over for a while. Then, after it has had much…surface time, it should pivot the control back to you. Do you know what I mean?"

"A little. Does this mean I'll ever be consciously aware of myself when I transform?"

"Let's see."

This caught Dr. Mavo off guard. "Wait, what—?"

Draksin outstretched his hand in the doctor's direction, and a fog of black mist started raining from it and entered through Mavo's mouth, nose, and ears.

Mavo began screaming in pain, "AAAH! Why would you—AAAH!"

Draksin only watched with an intent expression.

Mavo looked down at his right hand and forearm, which was tearing up his sleeve and forming into a giant, single, black and gray claw. His other hand had turned the same colors, but remained a hand. However, his regular "hand" did grow in size and sharp nails lined his fingers and thumb.

The rest of his skin changed to the gray and black color scheme, making him look a sickly color. His chest muscles bulged and ripped through his undershirt, and two short horns sprung from his forehead. Although his eyes remained blue, his handsome face had morphed into something out of a nightmare, almost like that of a gargoyle. He looked up and growled at Draksin.

"Not bad," Draksin commented. "Now, Lusef, take control of yourself. Tell that demon who's boss…"

"RRRAAH!" Demon Mavo roared.

"Use our words, shall we?"

Dr. Mavo seemed to calm down a bit. He looked at his hand and claw, taking in the odd yet familiar appearance. Still panting, the demon said lowly, "Thank you…my liege."

"I understand that you have been dormant in Mavo's soul for a while, now. Feels good to be out and about, eh?"

"Yes…"

"Hm. I know the human side can hear me, so I'm going to need the both of you to come to an agreement. You need the human to disguise yourself and use his high intellect, and he needs you to spread the very epitome of fear. If you two can't work together, then neither shall get their wish."

Demon Mavo nodded and smirked from his ugly mug. "He says 'understood'."

Draksin said the next word with as much evil delight as he could: _"Good."_

Demon Mavo suddenly spoke up, "My human side is requesting something. He says he still wants to see you control Sora."

"Fine, I guess I do owe him one for forcefully inducing his metamorphosis. Oh well…"

The campfire shined brightly within the dark Sayan Mountains, the heroes' laughter echoing loudly throughout. They were all watching a shadow-hand puppet show on one side of the shack's outer wall, laughing at the outrageous story. The story went as Daxter losing his pants in a vacuum cleaning incident, and when he tried opening up the vacuum's container, the pants flew out the window, and a half-bird, half-ape like creature flew by and snatched them. Yes, that bird's name was Pecker, and it is also worth mentioning that these were some pretty vivid shadows.

Link stopped laughing at the shadow of Daxter struggling to grasp the bird when he realized he had no idea how those vivid images were being projected by Aku Aku himself.

"Does someone want to tell me how he's—?"

"Oh MAN!" Murray exclaimed from joy. "Daxter just got hit in the head with a coconut!"

Sora stood up from his log-seat next to the shack. "This is better than a movie! I'm gonna get another s'more."

"Get me one, too, please!" Kairi requested, keeping her attention on the shadow puppet show.

"Sure, sure." Sora began walking back over to the campfire. In the middle of the short trek, Sora's happy expression suddenly changed; his smile faded and his eyes went wide and deranged. However, Sora didn't stop walking towards the campfire.

He and his black and yellow shoes walked past the graham cracker box, the bag of marsh mellows, and the chocolate bars. He kept walking towards the campfire, staring deeply into its burning light. It was then that his eyes turned into an acid-yellow.

"SORA!" Riku shouted from the side.

From his right, Sora was tackled by the older boy to the ground, narrowly missing the flaming embers. Sora seemed to snap back to reality as he fumbled for words under Riku's weight, "Whoa—what are you doing?"

"No, what were YOU doing?" Riku countered in an almost a fearful tone. "You nearly stepped onto the fire! I looked at you and you were just staring at it like it was Kairi's—"

"What's all the commotion?" Aku Aku asked, putting his story on pause. "Whoa…please tell me you guys are fighting."

Everyone looked at the slightly awkward position of Riku toppled over Sora. Each had freaked out looks.

"Hey, I just saved his life!" Riku explained as he shot upward.

"Is that what you call it?" Sly teased, having not seen what Riku witnessed.

Link had partially seen it. He then told Sora, "I only saw you walking towards the fire."

Crunch's tone displayed confusion. "I only saw Riku tackle ya down. Why he did it, I don't exactly know."

"Are you okay, Sora?" Donald asked, concerned Riku had crushed the boy for no reason.

From the ground, Sora hesitantly replied, "I'm…fine. I think I just blacked out. Guess that means it's almost my bedtime, eh?"

Kairi raised her hand. "So has the ship sailed on that s'more I asked for…?"

**-X-**

**This is HybridXKenshen again.**

**Draksin's existence = unpreventable. **

**Demonic Entry #2**

_**Is hatred worth dying for?  
**__**Anyone who feels it's so is a total idiot.**_

**Kenshen out.**

**-X-**

_Ho ho, man, that Kenshen!_

_Next chapter, our racing heroes rejoice in the lime light of the third round! What's different about this round is the actual use of…wait for it…weapons! Yes, Jak and Daxter will be given the use of rockets, machine guns, and homing missiles to whip some serious tail. This will all take place in the Warriors Coliseum again, where all of Australia's round two winners will gather for a final bang before the real competition starts…_

_And after a day of zero progression, our mountaineering heroes decided to wind down and have a little more fun around a campfire. Sora's weird act was only a hindrance to their amusement, as they continue to laugh the night away. But what will happen when Draksin begins to take a little more control of the Chosen Keyblade Wielder? And how is it even possible that he has the ability to do such a thing? Can he control other warriors? Who knows? Me, of course._

_Stay tuned for the preliminary rounds' conclusion in **Final Prelim!**_


	47. Round 3: Final Prelim!

_I've started drawing some of my original characters on the computer. They aren't in super high quality mainly because I use Microsoft Paint, but it still looks cool to me. So far, I've got Reiden, Calypso, Isaac, and Dr. Mavo done. I'll let ya know when I've uploaded them on deviantart._

Chapter 47: Round 3: Final Prelim!

Liberty City, USA…

Gerardo Lopez sat nervously in the helm of his airship, awaiting the countdown. He had to constantly shake away those pesky nerves; he was doing this for his brother, and he couldn't quit now that he managed to make it this far…

Tokyo, Japan…

Shingo Miyami pompously walked into the center of the arena with the eight other contenders behind him. He didn't seem the least bit nervous or affected by the information he received the day before, which outlined the new addition of lethal weapons to be used. If anything, he seemed more eager to conquer the preliminary and enter the real the deal…

Los Angeles, USA…

Sonic the Hedgehog leaned against his sportingly blue colored airship, hearing the announcer call out the contenders' names. They all seemed fake enough, with such names like "Dollface," "Mr. Grimm," and "Warthog." The hedgehog guessed they were trying to keep a low profile, too. Suddenly, the announcer's voice rang throughout the open roof stadium:

"…And in the blue ship, we have a blue and furry little creature known as Rade Hedge. He's a sixteen year old hedgehog rumored to be from another dimension, and he's ready to rock!"

Meanwhile, in a wide coliseum in London, the man known as David Hughes was being escorted by some Wipeout bodyguards when a little brown-haired girl approached him from behind and tugged on his shirt sleeve. He turned around and knelt down in front of her, giving her his attention. "What is it, Bethany?"

"Daddy…I know I can't convince you to not compete anymore, but will you please promise me that you won't get hurt?"

David hugged his daughter tightly. "You have my word. I'll come back in one piece."

* * *

The third and final round of the Australian preliminaries was going to take place in the Warriors Coliseum once again, and every racer of Australia who won the second round would be competing there. Even some racers from other nearby regions of the world were flying down to compete. Jak had been told that at least eight other contestants would be going up against him.

Jak and the crew had spent the night in the Wipeout-funded hotel up the street, which Russ had paid for. Each hero made sure to shower and wash off all the grime in their three hotel rooms' bathrooms. (Car chases make you sweat!) They didn't wake up as early as they did the morning before, so each hero was bright and ready to take on the pressures of the final round. After taking the almost unnecessary limousine up the road, each hero stepped out of the vehicle to let Russ escort them back up to their suite, where they awaited further command.

"It's going to take the promoters a few hours to finish setting up the racetrack and preparing the stands," Russ formally informed. "Feel free to explore, but make sure you're back here by twelve o'clock."

Almost immediately after the bodyguard left the room for a break, a small green haze appeared inside the suite, floating ephemerally before something materialized from it.

"What the heck is that?" Daxter asked, frightened.

Crash and Coco recognized the haze easily. The younger of the two exclaimed, "Hey—I know who that is!"

"As do I!" Crash humorously threw in.

The haze took the form of the smiling witchdoctor mask, Aku Aku himself. "Hey there, my children."

After everyone in the room had given their greetings to the witchdoctor, Aku Aku went on to talk about him and his fellow teammate's condition in Russia. "Things haven't gotten better or worse for us. We haven't made any progress on drawing Mavo out of hiding, nor have we even gotten a step closer to finding his laboratory."

"Well, what have you done?" Jak asked curiously.

"Let's see, we had a nice campfire last night, the other day we visited an amusement park, and just yesterday we sought advice from a fortuneteller…we'll talk about that later. Anyway, other than that, we haven't made any major progress."

"At least you guys haven't run into Draksin," Goofy said optimistically.

Aku Aku raised an eyebrow and admitted, "Actually, I have had this bad feeling that he is watching us. It feels like he knows about everything we do." Changing the subject, the witchdoctor added, "I'll be staying here for a few days to train Crash and Coco."

Crash threw his fists into the air and cheered, "Woo-hoo! We get to blow stuff up!"

Just then, everyone in the room besides Aku Aku tossed their nervous glances to the side and muttered small comments. However, Daxter's was the most audible.

"He wants to blow up more helicopters…?"

Confused, Aku asked everyone, "Wait, what's this about blowing up helicopters?"

"I'll explain," Coco volunteered reluctantly. "Yesterday, we were involved in a high-speed-ultraviolent car chase through the city, you know, nothing new. But the entire time we were getting shot at, Crash was in this hypnotized state."

"Go on…" said the floating mask, half interested, half worried.

"Well, after we blasted the guys who were chasing us, a helicopter flew in from, like, nowhere! And then for no reason, Crash stands up, still in his hypnotic state, and makes a Mojo Blast in his hands." Coco put up her hands just like Crash had done the morning before.

"A Mojo Blast?" Aku Aku asked, completely perplexed.

"A Mojo Blast?" Crash repeated, just as surprised.

"Yeah…and he sort of used it to blow up the helicopter," Coco quickly finished.

"Crash…" the witchdoctor mask slowly began. "I had no idea you had that type of destruction in you…"

"I didn't blow up any choppers!" the bandicoot defended. "I think I'd remember something like that in a limousine! It would have a big gaping hole in the roof and it would be full of people giving me horrified looks and…oh, crud."

Ratchet put his hand on Crash's sunken shoulder and, at first, said gently, "If it makes you feel any better…that sky lit up like a Christmas Tree! It was AWESOME!"

"Heh…" Crash said in deep thought. "Those guys were really trying to kill us, right?"

"Yeah, man," Daxter assured. "Those freaks were on our tails like fleas on my…er, tail! And right when we needed someone with scary powers most, you stood up and smoked 'em!"

"Oh, gosh! I smoked, too?" Crash asked in disbelief.

"No, he means you blasted them with a Mojo Blast," Coco quickly cleared up.

"I'd never seen such a destructive use of energy," Keira commented. "You took that chopper out in one hit!"

"Oh, man…" the crestfallen bandicoot lamented. "I probably could've just thrown a chicken at them instead of lighting up skies! That always helps!"

"Quit whining," Mario told Crash, rolling his eyes. "We almost got killed, and ya saved us. That's all ya need tah worry about."

"Wait, so Crash doesn't remember anything about that incident?" Aku Aku asked.

"Nope," Coco answered.

"Well, I guess that doesn't help us get ahead in today's lesson."

* * *

Glen and Gladdus appeared in two flashes of light near the shack, currently in a heated slap-fight.

The male of the two received a hard slap to the left funny-bone from the young girl, and she in turn received a hefty slap on the shoulder. Because she found that last slap to be exceedingly hurtful, she proceeded to slap Glennatus across the face.

"HEY!" Glen shouted, rubbing the red handprint on his cheek. "We agreed on no headshots!"

"How did we start playing this, again?" Gladdus asked nonchalantly.

"No idea," Glen admitted. "I think it involved a Pokemon card."

Link and the others had already started emerging from the cramped shack, looking wild and a bit sickly. Nearly everyone had bits of s'more lining their mouths, especially Link, who went haywire on the sweets the previous night. Murray, Donald, and Sora all had numerous chocolate and marshmallow stains on their shirts, Sly and Crunch had Graham Cracker crumbs scattered in their face-fur, and Riku's and Kairi's hairdos were utter messes.

"I think we overdid it last night," Link stated the obvious, looking wide-eyed and trippy.

The Precursors of Twilight burst out laughing at the heroes' hung over condition. Gladdus pointed and said in between laughs, "Holicrap, you guys look horrible!"

"Right," Crunch replied, spin-headed. "We're gonna go…um…"

"We're gonna go to the stream," Murray assisted with a heavy slur in his speech.

"Right, that stream," Crunch added. "We're gonna go there to…um…"

Sora grabbed his head. "Speak lower, please. Too much sugar…"

"Was I the only one who felt flies crawling on my face last night?" Donald asked wearily. He looked over to the raccoon next to him to find a happy fly perched on his chin. "Sly, you got something on yer face."

After Donald lazily feather-dusted the fly away from Sly's fur (get it?), Sly Cooper emotionlessly responded, "Thanks, Mom."

Glen held up his right hand while the left clutched his aching gut. He was, apparently, laughing so hard, he had to say in a strained voice, "Okay, don't anybody say anything else funny! I won't make it!"

Kairi looked down at her right foot. "This isn't my shoe…"

Glen officially died of laughter when he disappeared in a flash of light. Two seconds later, he reappeared on the ground and writhed in delighted agony.

* * *

"The race will start in twenty minutes. Will the Wipeout guards please escort the Round Three racers to the docks?"

Within the suite were our heroes Jak, Daxter, Keira, Goofy, Crash, Coco, Aku Aku, and Mario. While Crash and Coco had been going over a Mojo control lesson with Aku Aku, the others had been quietly awaiting the announcement in their comfortable chairs.

Jak was the first to stand, followed by Daxter, Goofy, Keira, and Mario.

"Go kick some tail, Jak," Mario commanded. "I ain't kidding. I really wanna win this thing."

"Easier said than done," Daxter retorted, feeling that twisting anxiety in his stomach. "Can we have a bathroom break first?"

"Just trust in Jak, Daxter!" Goofy advised. "He needs ya there in the crow's nest with him. Besides, Bentley, Ratchet, and Clank have your back!" It was true; the three hackers had found a way to slip away and get inside the main control room.

"Good luck and be careful, Jak," Keira said cautiously. "Wait for it…wait for it…" She waited until Daxter's back was turned. "Now!"

She and Jak lurched at each other, wrapping themselves in their arms, and bringing their heads closer together. However (as you expected), just as their top lips touched, a foul vomiting noise rang throughout the suite. Daxter was, of course, the one who vomited into a trashcan.

"You've got to be kidding—" Jak began, but he was interrupted by another session of vomiting from the ottsel.

Once Daxter finished, he turned around, wiped his mouth with the side of his hand, and proudly yelled, "WOO! I feel much better! Time to be heroes, eh Jak?"

Because of the putrid smell, Coco covered her nose and mouth. "Oh. My. God! Can someone handle Daxter's throw-up!"

"Oh, Daxter, that's gross!" Keira complained, covering nose as well.

Goofy laughed and clipped a wooden clothespin onto his nose. "Good thing I always carry these!"

Just then, Russ the bodyguard walked in. "Well, Mar it's time to—" He abruptly stopped talking and moving like he hit a brick wall. "What…is…that?"

"I'm outta here…" said Jak, taking the lead with Russ and Daxter out of the suite.

"Good luck, boys!" Aku Aku called out after them. When the racers and bodyguard disappeared behind the door, the witchdoctor insisted that he would be the one to get rid of the desecrated trashcan. With telekinetic powers, he lifted the object and teleported out of the suite.

Keira sat down and pointed to a TV monitor. "Quiet down, guys. The race is starting."

* * *

The heroes and Precursors decided to hike down the cleared pathway that led to the tourist town. Along the way, they found a freshwater stream and immediately began rinsing their sticky faces off. On one end of the stream, Riku was diligently gargling water in his mouth and spitting it onto the ground. "Whew…that feels much better."

"Yo, Riku!"

Riku turned around to find Link walking over, a light air about him. _Yo?_ Riku thought._ When does he ever say that? _"Yeah, what's up?"

Link turned his head to check on the others and make sure they weren't listening. "Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?"

Only a little puzzled by the Hylian's strange behavior, Riku positively answered, "Alright, shoot."

Link looked over his shoulder once more, this time, only checking on Sora and Kairi. They were currently helping Donald wash his head-feathers by forcefully dunking the duck's face underwater. Sora yelled happily, "C'mon, we used to do this all the time back in Atlantica!"

"We had GILLS!" was Donald's gurgled response.

Link turned back to Riku and said in low and secretive tone, "I know Zora likes Kairi…"

"Yeah, that's obvious," the silver-haired Keyblader stated with a smirk.

"…but can you tell me about you and her?"

Riku's smirk faded. Taken by surprise, he staggered, "…What do you mean?"

"You know, what's it like between you two?"

Riku looked to the side and took a moment to think before answering him, "We're friends."

"Good, that's what I thought, but I wanted to make sure!" Link replied, cherishing the answer. Before turning around, he quickly added, "Thanks for telling me."

"No problem," Riku said in low tone.

* * *

The five-lap race had officially started and the crowd erupted with an insane amount of delight. Jak's pit crew watched the screens intently as their star racer burned the newly designed racetrack. However, Aku Aku was not permitting his students to give their full attention the race at hand. After all, they were in the middle of a Mojo lesson.

"Are you paying attention, Crash?" the witchdoctor asked, noticing the bandicoot's bouncing eyes.

"Uh…not really. Can we do this lesson after the race?"

"Yeah," Coco added, "I can't even concentrate on gathering Mojo."

"You must learn to concentrate in difficult situations, my children," Aku Aku countered.

"Oh, alright…" Crash and Coco surrendered in unison. Their eyes still bounced back to the monitors, though.

Aku Aku went on with the lesson. "Today, we are going to try training in the Mojo Room. First, I need the both of you to enter your meditative modes, and then I will take over."

Crash and Coco did as they were told, meditating deeply. Once Aku Aku saw that they were in the correct trance, he started emitting a green light from his multicolored feathers. Before the bandicoot siblings could notice, it seemed their meditative worlds had been thrown into something like that of a dream.

Crash stumbled onto the wide stone platform he had been teleported to. Beside him, Coco also appeared, looking quite astounded by the strangely familiar environment they had both appeared in. All around the platform they stood on were numerous stars sitting in a purple sky. In fact, that purple "sky" looked a lot like somewhere in outerspace.

Aku Aku descended from the immeasurable heights of the sky. "Do you two remember the competition my brother and I held so many years ago?"

Crash thought for a moment before responding, "You mean the competition where you and Uka Uka decided to kidnap us so Cortex and I would have to fight for you two? And Dingodile and Tiny were our teammates for some strange reason? And it's not like we needed them because there could only be two people on a team anyways? And sometimes there would be a mixture of good and bad guys on a team, so that pretty much ruined the whole point of the competition?"

With a sigh of frustration, Aku answered, "Yes, THAT competition. Well, right now we are in the same place where Uka Uka and I gathered you and Cortex's minions to play our games. Since I bought you here, you will use this place as a dreamlike training ground."

"A dreamlike…training ground?" Coco repeated with confusion.

"Yes. Both your bodies are still physically on Earth, but your spirits have been have been brought here. While here, you two will spend time fighting each other and training hard in the ways of Mojo, all without getting injured in real life."

"So this all just like a dream?" Coco asked.

"You've got it!" Aku Aku answered. "Only beings such as I can bring you here, so you must remember that we need to use our time in this place wisely."

"Understood, Aku!" Crash saluted.

Back in the real world, Jak and Daxter were having a distressing/good ole time in the race's second lap.

Jak ran over a red X-shaped pad. Daxter giddily looked down at the hovercraft's control panel and asked, "Ooh, what did we get?"

The glowing panel displayed what looked like two virtual Gatling guns and read aloud to the duo, "Machine guns."

Instantly after receiving that message, two metal Gatling guns flipped out of a couple of side panels on the ship, lethal and activated.

"Sweet!" Jak approved.

Another racer in a black ship with red stripes steadily sped past Jak on the glowing underground track. Jak looked down at his steering wheel and found those familiarly located buttons affixed on the tops of the wheel where his thumbs could reach. (Also, mentioning that the steering wheel is sort of in the shape of an "H" might help you visualize where those buttons are.)

Jak looked ahead at the racer who had passed him and muttered, "Here's a little hero-hell…"

Mashing the wheel's buttons, Jak let loose the barrage of ammunition from the machine guns' barrels, pulverizing the other racer's ride. Inside the other vehicle currently being shot at, the driver, who was a black-feathered duck with an orange beak, angrily pounded his steering wheel after he lost control of the ride. "Oh for cryin' out loud!" Daffy Duck yelled. "I'm only in it for the story appearances, I swear!"

As another response to Jak's relentless attacks, Daffy opened his windshield and held up a large sign with the words "Rabbit Season" written across it. Jak only stopped firing at his opponent for a whole three seconds to read the sign with Daxter, who blankly said, "…I don't get it."

Jak forced his thumbs back onto the trigger buttons, unleashing more pain; he watched as the racer tried swerving away from the bullets but he was ultimately caught up in the fire and smashed into a wall. Daxter laughed and waved as they passed the wretched vehicle.

Suddenly, a rocket raced past the Peacemaking Pair and blew up into a nearby wall. This caused Daxter to scream, "Holy merciful crap!"

"Whoa…that was close," Jak stated with relief. Picking up one of the communicators Bentley gave him, Jak spoke into the device, "I'm gonna need some rockets, Bentley!"

The turtle spoke back, "Comin' right up! Just roll over the next Weapon Pad and they're all yours!"

"Already did," Jak replied, stating the truth. He looked down to see three virtual cannons on his panel's display, which told the duo, "Rockets."

Meanwhile, in the suite, the pit crew's attention was divided in two. The only three people in the suite, Keira, Goofy, and Mario were constantly swapping their interest between the race at hand and the strange phenomenon taking place with the Bandicoot family. Aku Aku, Crash, and Coco were still physically there, but they were in such an immobile state of meditation that they appeared to be statues.

Scratching his head, Goofy came to a different conclusion. "Uh-oh! Maybe they got possessed again like Crash was yesterday!"

"Oh no," Mario began, standing to his feet. "I ain't gonna be any where near those three when they decide to blow holes in da roof."

Keira disagreed, "No, guys, I'm pretty sure Aku Aku brought them into a dreamlike state. My dad does it all the time when he's talking to the plants."

Mario cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. "I'm guessin' I'm NOT supposed to find anything wrong with dat last statement?"

"No. My dad's the Green Sage."

"The Green what?"

"You know, the four Sages of Eco?"

"What the heck is ECO?"

"Come on, the raw energy that joins our spirits to—?"

"I give up. Let's just watch the race."

Back in the race, Jak found it difficult to keep his ride steady on account of opponent airships attacking on either side of him. The other racers giving him a hard time decided to bounce and ricochet Jak's aircraft between the two, causing him to lose slight control. Jak had already expended his rockets pickup from missing both of his targets.

"I'm getting rocked!" Jak exclaimed after being slammed for the hundredth time. "Shields would be helpful…"

"Slow down at the right time so they hit each other, Jak!" Daxter advised.

"Good idea, Dax!"

Jak waited for the vehicle on his left to go for another slam and promptly hit the brakes, falling behind the two adversaries. The Peacemaking Pair watched as the vehicle on the left unintentionally smashed into the unsuspecting ship on the right. Because of the attacking ship's force, the two opponent airships crashed into the wall, giving Jak the lead.

Almost to the finish line of the last lap and now in second place, Jak had been saving one special weapon for the first placeman: a homing missile. Behind the steering wheel was the control panel, which displayed a hood-camera view of the action. Jak swerved through the treacherous turns and waited until the first placeman was in the camera's sights. As soon as that happened, a virtual target lock appeared onscreen, counting down to a complete lock-on.

"Blast 'em, Jak!" Daxter commanded, fire in his eyes.

"My pleasure, Dax," Jak said pitilessly. Pressing the buttons on his steering wheel, a red missile erupted from their airship's frontal cannon and zipped down the track.

The first placeman was merely cruising along when he happened to notice a red inferno approaching him in his rearview mirror. Speaking of that first placeman, it might be interesting to note that he was a giant blue shark. Staring at the approaching missile, the shark declared, "Nark, nark, nark—I get no respect!"

The engines of that first placeman's ship exploded on impact with the missile, tossing the racer's ride over of the track's boundaries. Jak and Daxter were able to cruise through the last stretch of the lap and cross the finishing line. Jak yelled out of pure elation, "You the man, Dax!"

* * *

Ratchet, Clank, and Bentley sneakily returned to the suite without any major issues, save a disgruntled old man who literally couldn't find his marbles. Bentley proudly announced upon entering, "We're back, everybody!"

"Great job on helping our boys, boys!" Keira's greeting was especially enthusiastic. "I don't think anyone noticed."

"Yeah, we were smooth like that," Ratchet arrogantly complemented himself. "Isn't that right, Coco…? Coco, you there?"

As Ratchet went over to the bandicootess, who sat cross-legged with her eyes closed, he started to repeatedly snap his fingers to get her attention. However, Keira stood between him and Coco, halting the Lombax in his steps. She told him, "No, Ratchet. All three of them are in a dreamlike state, probably training. It's best if you didn't disturb them."

Cocking his head to the side and raising a curious brow, Ratchet pondered out loud, "Do ya think they can hear us?"

Clank walked up and raised an intrigued finger, hypothesizing, "I doubt it. Let's find out, shall we?" Clearing his mechanical throat, the little bot from Solana amplified his voice as he stated, "Coco, Ratchet says he would like to take long walks with you on the beaches of Pokitaru."

Ratchet dropped his face into his right palm. "Not cool, Clank…"

After receiving no reaction from the bandicootess, Clank concluded his experiment, "My data indicates that they cannot hear us. Nothing to worry about, Ratchet."

Within that dreamlike world that the Bandicoot family was currently training in, Crash was leaping from floating meteor to floating meteor, his sister in hot pursuit.

In mid-jump, Crash turned around to witness a fist racing for his head. He ducked down, but this inevitably caused him to miss the next meteor he was jumping toward, and he plummeted down into the deep depths of purple-colored space.

"WHOA!" Crash yelped to his descent. However, before he plummeted too far down, he was engulfed by a green light and teleported back to the floating hub of where Aku Aku had been watching over his students.

"Almost, Crash," Aku Aku commented. "But you're going to need to work on your footing if you expect to beat Coco in here."

Coco called out from her far away location in the asteroid field, "Yeah, Bro, you're going to need to watch your step!"

"I'll get you this time!" Crash yelled back, taking the floating-stepping stone path back to the field of asteroids.

As Aku Aku watched his bandicoot children battle in the field again, he thought to himself, _Coco always was better at fighting when they were younger. Of course, neither of them remembers…_

Suddenly, Crash reappeared next to the floating mask again. Embarrassed, Crash sheepishly explained, "I thought I saw a nickel…"

* * *

"My name is Cade X. Hybrid. And I'm a delayed-updater."

_On the next chapter (which I should have uploaded by now, but probably haven't), our heroes have a break from the hectic preliminary rounds and start preparing for the real deal. They will meet up with the round three winners in London, England, and then they will earn some rest and relaxation._

_Later, (in a chapter I also should've uploaded), Arden Calypso enjoys some time in the green light of racing fans all around the world. Yes, she has finally achieved her goal of getting many people hooked on the wild and crazy competition she's done her best to host._

_And even later, she finally decides that it was about time she did something about her love-interest… (I don't think I'll upload this one THAT fast.)_


	48. Dreaming of the Past

Chapter 48: Dreaming of the Past

Daxter wouldn't stop commenting that "these first class flights almost make the competition bearable."

Our heroes were headed straight for London, England, where the lucky winners of the preliminary races were to be gathered. The legends were currently flying across the Indian Ocean with a golden sunset illuminating the waters and the sky. They were about five hours into the flight, around six o'clock pm in their current time zone, and they had eleven to twelve hours left to go.

Most everyone on the plane was asleep, except for the Bandicoot siblings and Aku Aku, who were frozen in a meditative state, back in the Mojo training room again. In that peacefully empty region of the universe, Crash and Coco stood on separately adjacent asteroid platforms, channeling their Mojo.

"Good job, Crash," Aku Aku complemented. "Your Mojo is actually very evenly distributed throughout your body. Coco, you're almost there, but you need to let go of your nervous emotions in order to let the energy flow freely inside you."

"R-right…" said the bandicootess, feeling a bit overshadowed by her brother's prowess.

Aku Aku reminisced to himself, _When they were younger, I always suspected Crash's Mojo skill level was past his sister's. He always displayed a quiet attitude while Coco was more aggressive with her fluctuating moods. Well, that's how they acted when I found them…_

"Great, Coco, you've got it." Aku Aku continued with the lesson, "Now, hold out your hands and allow for the Mojo to flow to them."

Crash and Coco held out their right hands, feeling the liquid-like sensation course through. The male of the two started in an amazed tone, "Whoa…I can feel it again…it's so warm!"

"I don't feel anything…" Coco stated in a dejected tone. "Oh, man, why can't I get this right?"

Aku Aku smiled and said, "Rest your nerves, Coco. It may take more time for you to completely learn some ways of Mojo. Just have patience with yourself."

"Okay…" the bandicootess sighed, still not convinced.

Before Coco could have a chance to try delivering some Mojo to her hand again, her thoughts were interrupted by Crash screaming next to her, "Kee-YAA!"

In her brother's right hand, Crash held out a white ball of Mojo that was attached to his palm. As if he already knew what to do, Crash tensed up his whole arm and the ball of Mojo shot from his hand like a fast-moving projectile. Crash's small Mojo Blast erupted on impact with a far-off asteroid. "Alright!" Crash yelled in satisfactory, pumping his fist.

"What an amazing feat!" Aku Aku commended, observing the damage.

Coco crossed her arms and looked off in the other direction. "You know that kee-ya garbage sounds REALLY lame, right?"

Crash narrowed his eyes and scratched the back of his head. "Well, what would you prefer? That I yell _Hadouken _instead?"

Coco turned to Crash and raised an eyebrow. _"Hadouken?"_

"Yeah, you know that super move on Street Brawler II?"

"Oh, whatever!" Coco contradicted. "That's totally the _Kamekameka_ from Lizard Ball Z!"

"No way! _Hadouken!"_

"_Kamekameka!"_

"_Hadouken!"_

"_Kamekameka!"_

"_Hadouken!"_

"HEY!" Aku Aku yelled over the arguing siblings. "Are we finishing this lesson or not?"

* * *

It was two forty-eight in the morning, and the sky was pitch black, save the moon's waning glow. Departing in London's airport, Russ led the sleepy racing crew into another armored limousine, where they were transported through an urban, illuminated area. After a twenty five minute ride, they arrived near a large green building that looked to be a really fancy hotel.

Our heroes were led to the top floor, where they entered a large and roomy lounge complete with automobile posters on the silver metallic walls, a couple of foosball tables, four TV monitors, one of them a large monitor mounted on a wall, a small kitchen, and a round and circular couch in the center of the room. The circular couch seemed to dip down in the floor a bit, much like a Jacuzzi would do.

On that circular couch were a number of people, but they all appeared to be sleeping. There was a middle-aged human male with short brown hair sitting next to who appeared to be his young daughter. Further along the couch was a lone blue hedgehog who appeared to be having trouble sleeping. He was breathing hard and had an intense look upon his eyebrows.

Across from the troubled hedgehog was a soundly sleeping man who appeared to be a mix of black and Hispanic. He had on a light yellow and black jacket, the former of which color appearing on the sleeves of his crossed arms. Next to him was a scrawny, black-haired teenager who wore a blue collared shirt and white pants. As he slept, he tightly held a white racing helmet with a red letter "M" printed on it under his right arm.

Those were the only people on the couch, so there was enough space for all of Jak's crew to sit down. Coco sat in between the hedgehog and Crash, Ratchet being on her brother's other side. Coco looked over to the sleeping hedgehog and immediately started sympathizing for him. Getting Crash's attention, Coco whispered, "Look, this guy's having a nightmare."

Crash scratched his chin in thought. "Should I sing him the 'night-night' song?"

Coco snickered before saying, "I dare you!"

Crash took the challenge and slowly began to get up from his seat when the large TV monitor mounted on the wall activated, sidetracking the bandicoot's interest. "Cool TV!"

"Who turned on the TV?" Ratchet asked.

The screen shifted inputs and suddenly displayed Arden Calypso's face. She noticed half of the competitors were still sleeping soundly on the couch, so she abruptly greeted everyone in a loud tone, "Good morning, contestants!"

"Huh…" slurred the Hispanic American as he woke. "What's happenin'…?"

The teenaged human with the helmet suddenly perked awake with an interested look, and stared at the giant TV monitor with wide aqua-blue eyes. He suddenly…and rather speedily said, "Wow, that's the biggest screen I've ever seen in my life!"

The brown haired man silently woke up and noticed the television screen with Calypso on it. He turned to his daughter and nudged her awake, whispering, "Look alive, Beth."

Calypso asked, "Is everyone awake, yet?"

Coco looked over to the hedgehog next to her, who continued to toss a little in his sleep. Coco stalled, "Hold on." Just as she was about to shake the hedgehog awake, Crash grabbed her hand and cautiously said:

"No, Coco! He could be dangerous! I'LL handle this!" Crash slowly lifted his hand, reached across Coco, and swiftly slapped who you probably guessed was Sonic the Hedgehog across the face. Hard.

"HEY!" Sonic yelled in irritation as he awoke.

Calypso went on, "Good. As you all probably know, my name is Arden Calypso, the host of the Twisted Wipeout competition. You lot have bravely competed in the preliminary rounds and have, better yet, survived. Now, as you can tell, the rest of the racers haven't made it yet. It seems their flights are running late, but we have them up on a webcam…"

The other three smaller TV monitors suddenly flipped on, each displaying one person's face on it. One of the monitor's displayed a young Japanese man with dark purple highlights in his short hair, another showed an attractive female rat-looking being with snow-white fur and blonde hair, and the last presented an almost heroic-looking human male with a red helmet that sported a golden eagle-shaped headdress on the forehead. This man's eyes were shrouded by a tinted visor from the helmet, leaving only white triangles visible.

Calypso smiled devilishly before saying, "First, let's start with introducing yourselves. Sleepy furry one, you may go first!"

Understanding she was speaking to him, Sonic gave the sorceress a flat, annoyed look before announcing from his seated position on the couch, "Well…my name's Rade Hedge, and I'm from Los Angeles in the United States. Um…I'm here with my friends, but I think they went downstairs to eat or something…oh, and I'm here to wish for psychological help, you could say."

"Good. Next," ordered Calypso.

The man in the black and yellow jacket and stated, "My name is Gerardo Lopez, and I want to wish for my brother's freedom. I think I got where I am by pure luck, but I'm ready to take on anything else this competition can throw at me."

"We'll see. Next," Calypso ordered again.

This time, the brown haired man sitting next to the girl spoke up. As he announced his name and business in a slight Irish accent, he wore a hardened and hateful expression. "I am David Hughes, and I'm here with my daughter Bethany to win back my wife's life."

"You look kind of familiar, Mr. Hughes…Tell me, were you one of those angry citizens who protested the Twisted Wipeout competition a few streets away from here the day after I constructed the first racetrack?"

David's ticked expression turned into something fierce as he retorted, "I was the one who broke into your little dwelling and demanded you bring my wife back to me, and—"

"And I said, 'You'll have to race for her. The only way I'll bring her back is if you win.' Wow. I'm surprised you made it this far, Mr. Hughes—"

"—Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Daxter interrupted, his patience run out. "Our turn! Now my name is Daxter, and I'm here racing with my buddy, Mar. The both of us are here with our pit crew. The weird floating mask guy is Aku Aku. The goofy-lookin' dog with long ears is Goofy. The short old guy is Mario. The bandi-babe is Coco. The blue-haired wonder-gal is Keira. The tiger-looking dude is Ratchet with his robotic friend Clank, and the disabled and intelligently-abled turtle is Bentley."

Crash gave the ottsel a puzzled look. "You forgot about me, Daxter!"

"No I didn't!" the furry cross-animal defended.

"Yeah, you did! You forgot about orange-thunder!"

Calypso immediately ordered, "Next."

Crash slumped down in his seat, mumbling, "Everyone gets a cool introduction but me…"

The teenaged guy with the white helmet and blue shirt actually stood up to announce himself. He said in the same speedy tone again, "_I am Speed Racer, demon on wheels!_ My father and I have agreed to enter this infamous contest to prove that I am the fastest racer in the world! It's always been my dream to go against the world's fastest and most clever racers, and I'm gonna beat you all with my Mach 5000! _O-haha!_"

Crash bluntly asked, "Why do you talk so fast?"

"Because I'm _SPEED!"_ Speed quickly answered.

"Okay…why do you talk faster than your mouth moves?" Crash asked. "Seriously, I think I saw your jaw move, like, twice when you said that whole speech."

"Because talking faster means I get to the point faster! Getting to the point faster means more things can be said! More things being said means I must move my mouth a lot! Moving my mouth a lot means more animation! Therefore, moving my mouth as little as possible saves money on animation costs, so I have found a loophole in the system! _Ha-ha!"_

Drawing more blanks than an artist with invisible ink, Crash stumbled to find the words to say, "…then why don't you speak normal…?"

"Crash!" Coco chastised. "Quit being so rude!"

On the giant screen, Calypso backtracked as she pointed and asked, "Wait, wait, wait—blondie, what did you call the orange one?"

_Uh-oh, _Coco thought. "I…uh, called him Chris."

"I thought I heard Crash…" Calypso pondered out loud.

"Oh, um," Coco began, shaking her head, "I must have misspoken, you know, what with all this deadly combat racing going on."

"I see…" Calypso droned, narrowing her eyes at the bandicootess. "You and Chris wouldn't happen to be Eastern Barred Bandicoots, would you?"

Bewildered, Crash repeated, "Eastern Barred…?"

Once again, Coco answered, "Nah, he doesn't know what that is. We're Western Banned Ferrets. Not bandicoots."

Finally, Calypso's suspicion of the bandicoot must have worn off. "Hm…whatever. And now we're going to let our webcam friends introduce each other. Captain, you may go first."

The "Captain" was the man in the red helmet. In his webcam's background was the high-tech interior of a hovercraft. He announced, "Hello fellow racers. My name is Captain Falcon, and I'm entering this competition for thrills only. I'm interested to see what kind of racers the world has in store for me and if they're any match for me and my Blue Falcon. By the way, that's the name of the ship I'm riding in right now. I look forward to the Grand Prix so you all can show me your moves."

Second to introduce himself was the Japanese man with purple highlights. In his camera-feed, he seemed to be sitting in a comfortable seat of a private jet. There were other people with similar and different hairstyles as him sitting all around; apparently, his fans and his pit crew might be the same people.

"Hey, dust-eaters, the name's Shingo Miyami! You guys are probably lookin' at the best racer in the world! If you're feeling honored, don't worry. It's a natural feeling when lookin' into the eyes of a street master."

Suddenly, Speed Racer stood up and corrected, "I think those highlights have seeped into your brain, Shingo! I am the best racer in the world, and no one can beat me! _Ha-ha!"_

Shingo laughed maniacally before saying, "Look at this fool with his undying racing spirit! That is so '60's!"

Everyone one of Shingo's fans started laughing in the background of his camera feed, causing Rade, Jak and his crew, Gerardo, and even Calypso to start chuckling as well. Speed Racer shook his fist at Shingo's monitor's screen and yelled, "How dare you make a fool out of me! I'll show you who's boss on the track! You'll see! You'll all see that I'm the best!"

"Too bad I'm the best, sparky," the female, white-furred creature insulted from her remote location inside of a private jet. When she spoke, she had a light, narcissistic manner about her tone. Every word she spoke seemed to carry a load of self-indulgence. "My name's Minerva Mink, and I'm from the U.S. of A. I've been a racer at heart all my life, I've competed and won in sixteen different MotorStorm races, and I model in a magazine called—"

"Platinum Biker Babes!"

Calypso, everyone on the couch, and the three people on the smaller monitors gave the person who blurted out the magazine's name a moderately surprised look. Even Daxter's eyebrows stopped jumping around in arousal when he turned to face the culprit.

Coco turned to her smiling brother and said after remembering something, "…Oh yeah, that's right. You renewed your subscription for that magazine two weeks ago."

The star-struck bandicoot must have realized who the white mink was when she mentioned the MotorStorm races (or was it the modeling?); Crash's eyes lit up as he clasped his hands together in pure joy. "Ooh, Min! I've been a big fan since you first started out biking in Motor Cross! I've read all your articles and interviews—"

"—Right—" Coco quickly inserted.

"—And you're my most favoritest biker-slash-racer ever!"

From across the couch, David gave Crash an odd look while his daughter giggled uncontrollably, saying, "He's so funny—!"

After hearing Crash's little fume, Jak turned his head to give the bandicoot a slighted look. "Whoa, Cras—um, Chris—I'm sitting right here!"

Keira also added with an edgy tone, "Yeah, whose side are you on?"

Before Crash could stumble to find an answer, Min spoke up, "I appreciate the adoration, orange-thunder. You wanna work in my pit-crew?"

Smiling from ear to ear, Crash displayed a look of utter ecstasy. "Of course, I will—!"

"CHRIS!" Coco, Ratchet, Aku Aku, Jak, and Keira yelled out.

Crash sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Oops…sorry guys."

Rade Hedge laughed under his breath. He humorously thought to himself, _Oh man, what is WITH this guy?_

"What the heck's wrong with you?" Coco chastised again. "We've got a job to do!" The embarrassed bandicoot's sister turned to Min's screen and also scolded her, "And shame on you for trying to poach one of us!"

Min waved Coco off, "Relax, I was only throwing him a bone…"

Crash muttered under his breath to Ratchet, _"I would really like that!"_

"Well," Calypso began, "It seems we've all come to know each other. I look forward to meeting you all in person. The Grand Prix will take place in three days. In the meantime, you all will stay here and prepare for the big race. Also, there will be cameras hovering around to capture your lives for reality entertainment. Be prepared for surprise interviews."

Everyone on the couch exchanged confused looks with each other. The "reality entertainment" part is what was throwing them all off. Arden must have understood their thoughts because she added, "Aside from the deadly action, people love to watch other people with interesting lives. Let's face it: reality shows are the most addictive programs on television, so we're going to score more ratings this way."

Gerardo crossed his arms and asked with a raised eyebrow, "How do you figure our lives are interesting?"

"Judging by what I've seen in the last five minutes, I think you guys will do perfectly. Now, I'm sure some of you have daunting case of jetlag, so a good night's sleep is well recommended. There are plenty of rooms to sleep in down in the fourth and fifth floors. Enjoy, racers."

* * *

That night, Crash had drifted off to sleep easier than he had thought he would. What with spending the night in a fancy hotel room, talking to his racing idol (and fantasy), and finally learning how to control Mojo better than his sister, he thought his escalated mood would keep him up till later that morning, but he had drifted away very quickly, yet steadily enough to make his decent into slumber a calming experience.

In his subconscious dreams, Crash felt the wind racing past his face as he drove his motorcycle at breakneck speeds down a dark and endless freeway. Apparently, someone must have told him that helmets were dangerous to wear, because he was riding brain-bucketless. The bandicoot's yellow Crash N' Burn jacket hugged his arms tightly, the garment's tail fluttering behind him.

On the road, Crash spotted a hitchhiker in the distance. As he got closer, he came to realize that it was the shirtless Reiden Long himself who was trying to hitch a ride. Reiden must have just noticed it was Crash Bandicoot speeding down the freeway, so he jumped out in the middle of the road, thinking the bandicoot would magically come to a complete stop.

The fallen warlord screamed in delight, "Crash, buddy-ole-pal! Lemme get a ride, bro!"

Crash had no intention of stopping, so he ran Reiden over. The ex-emperor flew over Crash's motorcycle, screaming in midair, "I resent nothing!" before smashing into the ground.

"What was that guy's name again…?" Crash blankly asked, not caring that he actually ran a person over.

"His name was Super Loser, Crash-y," said a light voice next to him. Also speeding on a motorbike was Minerva Mink herself. She giggled and waved to Crash, who giggled and waved back.

But the second that Crash had taken his attention off the road and his hand off the steering wheel, his motorcycle's front wheel had hit an enormous rock and flipped forwards, launching the bandicoot off. A short time later, his face was skidding across the ground with his legs thrown over his head in an extremely cartoonish fashion.

As his face continued to skid, he noticed the ground had changed from asphalt to a sandy texture. After his painless motion had halted, he began to feel something in his eyes he hadn't felt in a long time; tears.

He stood up quickly to see that he was a child again, and that he was located in some busy market location with adobe colored buildings all around. However, the sudden change in body size and scenery was the least of his concern; it was the smirking lion boy proudly standing five feet in front of him. This anthropomorphic lion child was about an inch or two shorter than Crash, had wide, green eyes and a gang of three other anthro-mammals standing behind him, all laughing out loud.

In Crash's mind, it had just been computed that the smirking lion boy had pushed him down. Crash's breathing went hard and fast as anger grabbed every part of him. Crash yelled, "Leave me alone!"

The young lion laughed before retorting, "Aw, you gonna cry if I don't?"

Crash's bully started laughing with his buddies, receiving assuring looks from them that he was the toughest guy in the group. One of his buddies, a red fox, commented, "I think he's already crying, Nathan!"

As a response, Crash quickly wiped the tears-dirt mix from his face, turning red with rage. He looked around at the passerby, all of whom were types of adult-sized anthro-mammals wearing tunics and dresses made of scruffy materials. Why weren't they getting involved? Why wouldn't they help him?

The lion child called Nathan grinned and cruelly said, "He's just a weak little—"

"Shut up!" Crash shouted, charging at Nathan with balled up fists. The young, enraged bandicoot took a swing at his enemy, who stepped aside and threw his knee into Crash's side.

Shortly after that counterattack, Nathan spun around and kicked Crash in the same spot with the other leg. Crash hit the ground again, rolling and tumbling.

Crash let out a cry in pain, clutching his side while more tears streamed from his closed eyelids. Suddenly, a girl's voice shrieked in what sounded like pure rage:

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

Crash looked up to see the same, familiar, black-haired girl from an earlier dream. She was running at full speed toward Nathan, who only had time to realize he was about to get blindsided (see: owned) by the angry girl. Crash didn't stay to watch the young girl tackle Nathan and repeatedly punch him across the face; he stood up and ran off throughout the market, disappearing in the sunset and leaving his bully to get pummeled.

He thought he heard the girl call after him, beckoning him to come back, but his own high-strung emotions seemed to drown out every confusing sound around him. That was when he started to realize he was waking to reality…

* * *

Ah. Aku Aku, you're back. Where ya been, man?

Aku Aku: Where do you think? Juggling at the circus. Bios time…

Speed Racer

**Age:** 18  
**Gender:** Male  
**Species:** Human

This man's name says everything about his life. Bada-bing, bada-boom, we're done here. Next bio. Okay, so according to Wikipedia, Speed was apparently born inside of a racecar, going ninety miles an hour. Okay, I made that up. Seriously, though, Speed Racer has been a demon for speed since he was a young child, and he is always trying to prove his mastery of…well, speed, but his overprotective Pops usually forbids him to join any races that involve extreme danger. It's a wonder Pops agreed to let Speed participate, but hey, stranger things have happened. Speed Racer and his trusty Mach 5 racecar first starred in the hit TV anime _Speed Racer__, 1967._

Captain Falcon

**Age:** ?  
**Gender:** Male  
**Species:** Human

Although not much is know about his origins or homeland, this Captain Falcon is known to be a notorious bounty hunter whenever he isn't out tearing up the tracks. He often displays a heroic sense of justice and playing it fair, but his true goals seem very clouded at this point. With his insanely iconic aircraft, the Blue Falcon, he is an unstoppable juggernaut on the tracks. Now, I'm pretty sure that there is no connection between him and the Falcon's football team, but that information is subject to change. The always heroic Captain has appeared many times in the _F-Zero_ racing series, _F-Zero_, _1990_, being his first appearance. Hey, this guy has also appeared in all iterations of _Super Smash Bros.! _Falcon Punch!

Minerva Mink

**Age:** 24  
**Gender:** Female  
**Species:** White Mink

Born in the leaves of narcissus plants, Min is the embodiment of egotistical vanity. Although she grew up an orphan, much attention was paid to her by the male inhabitants of the forest everyday, shaping her self-centered attitude for life. However, when she moved out of the forest, she took an interest in mountain racing and moved on up to be a professional MotorStorm racer (which is a really fun game on the PlayStation 3). In between racing events, she modeled in various skimpy outfits for the magazine Crash is oh-so familiar with, Platinum Biker Babes. Now she's here in Twisted Wipeout to wish for…well, she hasn't said it yet, but it's something vain, I'll tell you that. Min first appeared in some episode of _Animaniacs,__ 1995 (?)._

_Explanations: (I know you want 'em)_

_I chose Speed Racer 'cuz he…you know. I needed somebody annoying._

_I chose Captain Falcon because he's in one of the most awesome racing series ever made. I swear to Moses, I would spend way too much time on my friend's Gamecube playing that game. It's his fault. Who had Gamecubes, anyway? _

_You're probably wondering why I chose Minerva Mink from the Animaniacs. The quick answer is that I was running out of characters, and I most certainly did NOT want to use people from Twisted Metal in a K-rated fic. It just wouldn't be fair to them. _

_The long answer would be that I was reading a Star Wars parody fic by strongbad58450 long ago, which featured mainly Crash Bandicoot characters with others from Homestar Runner and Animaniacs. I didn't know what the heck Homestar Runner was, but I used to love Animaniacs, so I read it. Meh…not crazy about script format stories._

_Anyway, one of the characters was parodied by Minerva Mink. It sounded familiar, but I couldn't quit remember a Mink chick, so I searched her on Youtube where I discovered she only had two episodes. In the first six seconds of one of the episodes, I figured out why. She had to be one of the shallowest characters of anything I'd ever seen. Never mind the excessive sexuality, that's all over cartoons, but her primadonna attitude was enough to drive me up the wall._

_So I realized I had no female racers and said what the hay. She was better than a watered-down Sweet-Tooth (which is what I was going to do at first)._

_Voila! Stay tuned for __**Flashing Lights**__!_


	49. Flashing Lights

Chapter 49: Flashing Lights

Hours before Calypso and the Grand Prix racers held their little webcam party, the genie-turned sorceress attended a late-night Round Three celebration party. She, Mr. Timothy Biggs, and a few other Wipeout workers were enjoying a nice toast of champagne inside a white limousine. They were cruising down a busy street of the undisturbed area of London, enjoying the sky's setting sun. She wore a silky white dress with a beaded necklace and a white, crown-like headdress of sorts.

Mr. Biggs laughed before saying, "Oh, I wish my father could be here to see all the money I'm making!"

An employee added, "And how much you're drinking!"

Biggs retorted, "Oh, buzz off! I'm trying to have a good time."

Calypso grinned and said, "Just say the word, Mr. Biggs, and I'll have this moron out of your hair."

"Really? How?" Mr. Biggs inquired.

"Oh, you know. I'll kick him out."

Frightened, the Wipeout executive explained, "Whoa, I was only kidding!"

Biggs went on, almost in drunken ignorance, "Kick him out, you say?"

"Yes, I could have that done in a snap." Calypso's grin turned into something evil.

The terrified exec pleaded, "Please don't kick me out the limo! We're moving at ninety-five kilometers an hour for God's sake!" (i.e. sixty mph.)

"Hm…" The rich executive actually started considering the idea.

"Sir!" shrieked employee, gesturing with his hands to forgive him.

"Yeah, go ahead and toss him out."

"Can do, Mr. Biggs!" Arden happily complied.

"SIR!" the exec screamed again.

"Shut up, Peterson," Biggs commanded calmly, taking another swig of champagne. "You're such a gullible moron."

By now, every other executive in the car besides Calypso and Biggs had gotten quiet. However, when Mr. Biggs himself started laughing about the matter, they too began to nervously and steadily laugh. Calypso was also laughing. She assured, "I'm not going to kick you out!"

Peterson sighed in relief, laughing to himself, "Oh, thank goodness. You two had me for a second!"

Calypso kept laughing and purposely widened her green eyes a bit. She said in the same jubilant tone, "Right! That's because you're going to kick _yourself_ out!"

"Huh…?" Peterson stuttered, not knowing whether this was a joke or a threat.

Calypso kept grinning as her eyes began to glow a deep green. Her eyes actually lit up a portion of the car like glow-in-the-dark objects. In a startlingly sweet tone, she told Peterson, "Open up that door and jump out for me, sweetie."

Like he was under a trance, the exec's eyes were wide as he complied, "Yes, Calypso!"

Peterson proceeded to open the nearest door and dive out onto the moving road head-first.

Mr. Biggs chuckled, thinking he had done that on his own freewill, "That idiot."

Ever other exec in the car stared out the windows in horror as Peterson's body tumbled like a rag doll on the pavement, nearly getting hit by other cars. With awe on their faces, they turned back to Arden, who was shivering. The sorceress requested, "Will someone close that door? It's freezing in here."

A few minutes later, the limousine arrived by a big-time sports club with a crowd of fans awaiting them. There was even a red carpet rolled out between where the limo had parked and the club's entrance. A TV news reporter was walking up to the limousine's doors, anxiously reporting, "And the creators of the insanely popular Twisted Wipeout combat racing competition are here now! First to get out is…"

A chauffer had opened the door and Mr. Biggs stepped out, generously leading Calypso out the limo. When they exited the vehicle, photographers flashed their lights, creating a symphony of film bursts. Mr. Biggs approached the TV news reporter first, shaking his hand.

The reporter greeted, "Hello, Timothy Biggs! It's great to see you again!"

"Thanks, it's a pleasure," Biggs replied, sounding completely sober.

"Can you tell us where you came up with the idea for a competition like this?"

"Well…" Biggs looked back to see Calypso doing various poses for the cameras, apparently soaking in all the limelight she could get. "Arden is the one who had the idea."

"Oh, that's right! So she's the one whose been sparking all the controversy. Tell us, does she have more ideas like this?"

"I doubt it. She loves to show off apparently." Mr. Biggs dismissed himself and walked into the sports club.

The reporter moved on to Calypso, who was still in the middle of posing wildly. He greeted her, "Ahem, Miss Arden!"

"Yes?" she replied, turning around.

"A few moments of your time, please, Madam! Can you tell us how you were able to get the Twisted Wipeout competition running so quickly?"

"Magic, of course," Calypso admitted.

"Oh-right-y, then! What do you plan on doing after this competition?"

"Another competition," Calypso answered flatly. "This won't stop until everyone has had a chance to kill themselves."

"I see…so are you really going to grant people's—"

"You talk too much," Calypso interrupted. Her eyes began to glow again. "Go play in traffic for me, okay?"

The reporter smiled and said, "Yes, Madam!" He ran off in the middle of the street, waving his arms around like a madman while vehicles struggled to swerve around him.

While the photographers started snapping shots of the crazed reporter, Calypso looked up at the sky, which was only in the middle of a sun set. In a mutter, she said to herself, "I still have some daylight left. I'd better go now."

* * *

_Calypso relishes in the fact that people love her for what she's created, but partying obviously isn't her first priority right now. _

_On the next chapter, our mountaineering heroes watch some highlights from Russia's preliminary third round, devastated by the amount of danger in these races. One of them begins to act strangely, as if they're under someone else's control…_

_Read __**Hit the Floor**__ to find out more!_

_Also, a few things I want to say:_

_Dude, what's up with this new game called Heroes on the Move? It's a PlayStation game that combines Sly Cooper, Bentley, Jak, Daxter, Ratchet, and Clank into one adventure or something. What the flip? Stolen, much?_

_Uka Uka Reborn is basically complete. I'll upload it when I'm finished with Dr. Mavo and the Grand Prix._

_Another Death match is coming soon…Nope, not Cloud's._

_I don't care what ANYBODY says, Linkin Park's new album A Thousand Suns is amazing! In the words of Jay-Z, if you want their old stuff, buy their old albums! _

_Speaking of that band, I just figured out that their lead singer is in Saw-3D! Is that twisted or what?_

_Still (kind of) speaking of that band, Medal of Honor looks great, but I hear it didn't score great with reviews. Oh well, The Catalyst trailer looked epic, so I might rent it._

_I beat Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. So much fun…and that secret ending only confused me. As usual. Oh well, God of War: Ghost of Sparta, you are next!_

_And the last thing: Orphco's little spat with Carmelita will be continued. Seriously, Geek, don't think I forgot about them. God, I haven't forgot about them!_

_Stay tuned, y'alls._


	50. Hit the Floor

This chapter's a bit physical. Eh, you've probably read worse, anyway.

Chapter 50: Hit the Floor

Back in Russia, our heroes were down in the tourist town again, enjoying the air conditioner inside of a small clothes shop. There was an old television set mounted on one of the store's corners, showcasing the Russian third round of the Twisted Wipeout race. The spectators' commentary was, of course, in Russian, but our heroes could definitely understand the intensity of the race. A contender had already been eliminated through lethal means.

"Man, it's a death race!" Sly Cooper commented, gawking at the explosions and mayhem.

Link was standing next to the raccoon, along with Donald, watching the television with his arms crossed. "I sure hope Jak is doing okay in the race."

Sly confidently responded, "Bentley's got his back. I know that for sure!"

Donald added, "Yeah, and Aku Aku will be back to give us an update."

"Right…" Link said, nodding.

Someone tugged at the Hylian warrior's left hand from behind. Link turned around to find that it was Kairi who did the tugging. "What is it, Kairi?"

"Hey, are you busy?" asked the girl in a low tone.

"No, not really. Why?"

"No reason, I just…"

Another crash occurred in the race's highlights on the television, which made Donald exclaim, "Whoa! Did you see that?"

His attention a little split, Link pivoted his head back around to see the televised wreckage. "Who crashed?" Link asked.

"I think it was that Zangief guy!" Sly answered with awe.

A little put off by Link's split attention, Kairi tried again, "Link?"

Returning his gaze back to Kairi, Link apologized, "Oh, sorry. What is it?"

"Can you help me with something?"

_This is new_, he thought. "Sure, what do you need help with?"

"Just follow me…" Kairi commanded softly. She grabbed Link's hand and delicately pulled him along, walking him through and in between the store's many racks of garments. Confused, Link only let the princess of heart drag him to whatever destination they were supposed to be reaching.

When he noticed they were headed towards the dressing rooms, Link felt the need to ask, "Where exactly are you taking me?"

Momentarily, Kairi stopped and placed a finger over the Hylian's lips and shushed him.

_Okay, this is new,_ Link thought again as the girl shushed him, an amorous look in her eyes. Suddenly, he thought again, _Wait, is that an amorous look?_

She pulled him over to the ladies' dressing rooms, just on the other side of the men's where Sora and Riku were trying on shirts. Kairi quickly looked around before opening one of the rooms up and bringing herself and Link into it.

Once inside, Link felt a little ashamed to admit he had basically let her pull him inside the dressing room, but that feeling was short-lived when he felt Kairi's hands push him against a wall. Coming back to his senses, Link asked in a shout-whisper, "Kairi, what are you_ doing?"_

Kairi's only response was to…well…surprise the Triforce out of Link. She pressed her lips against his gaping mouth, and began to aggressively kiss the shocked warrior. For a while, Link only stood there, pressed in between Kairi's advances and the dressing room's wall.

_Alright, this is definitely new!_ Link thought again, finding his own arms wrapped around the girl's small frame. He decided to kiss back. Nothing was stopping him but his own shock. He brought a hand up from her back to her hair, feeling the soft red locks in between his fingers.

Suddenly, a rush of realization came over Link. He pushed Kairi away. "Wait, what are we—I mean, you doing? This isn't like you!"

Kairi's voice sounded…different, more mature. "Don't worry, Link. I'm not gonna _bite you…"_

Link looked into her eyes. They weren't blue. As he realized the color, he felt a warm feeling of pure chaos in his chest; he immediately looked away, down at his boots. "Why…are your eyes…green?" He struggled to say, feeling the chaos in his chest take over.

Kairi moved her head to position her eyes in front of his. "Just give yourself to me, and everything will be al—"

"No!" Link exclaimed, shutting his eyes. "You're not Kairi!"

The Hylian grabbed "Kairi" by her shoulders and used all of his strength to push her out of the dressing room's door. She crashed through the wooden door, landing on her back.

"Who are you?" Link yelled in anger, trying to maintain his balance. He stumbled over to her, drawing his Master Sword and pointing it at the fake's body like an accusing finger.

By now, the heroes and the store's shoppers had gathered to the disturbance. Sly, Donald, Murray, and Crunch rushed onto the scene, not believing their eyes.

"Link, what's the big idea!" Donald yelled.

"What did she do to tick you off?" Sly asked, trying to neutralize the situation.

"No—this is a fake!" Link exclaimed, wiping sweat from his brow. "Tell us where Kairi is!"

The fake Kairi sat up, looking hurt and injured. However, she said nothing. She only turned around to look at Sly, Donald, Murray, and Crunch.

Link yelled, "No! Don't look into her eyes!"

Murray didn't find anything wrong with the girl's normal blue eyes. "What's your problem, Link? You're acting like a complete buffoon!"

Crunch added, "Yeah, there's nothing wrong with—"

"Leave!"

When the fake Kairi yelled the word, she swiped her hand across the air in front of the four anthropomorphic mammals, causing a gust of wind to push them back with enough force to send them flying through the nearby wall. Racks of clothing flew over, creating a mess.

The tourist shoppers took the opportunity to leave the store before they became embroiled in the struggle themselves; it was then that Sora, Riku, and the real Kairi showed up on the scene. When all three got a good look at the duplicate of Kairi on the floor and Link standing over her with his sword pointed at her, Sora could only say, "Somebody needs to start explaining."

"Why is there another me?" Kairi bluntly asked no one in particular.

The fake Kairi stood up to her feet and said in Arden Calypso's British voice, "Looks like things won't go exactly according to plan." Arden-Kairi looked over to Link, who was still having trouble standing. She swiftly threw a kick to Link's abdomen, sending the warrior to the floor on his back. Next, she held out both of her hands to the Keybladers, igniting Mojo Blasts in both of them.

Riku recognized this type of attack, so he quickly warned, "She's gonna blast us—HIT THE FLOOR!"

The moment he said "floor", Calypso shot off the Mojo Blasts, both of which the Keyblader's dove under to avoid. The wall behind the trio exploded, raining debris and shreds of clothes over them.

Sora stood up from the rubble, and watched as Arden morphed back to her regular body, wearing her ninja-suit getup. She grabbed hold of Link's right hand, and flew upwards with him, out the store's exit. Sora turned to Riku and Kairi, who were just recovering from the explosion. "Come on, Link's in trouble!"

Sora led them through the half destroyed store and out the exit, where Calypso was floating above the street, out of anyone's reach. She was holding Link with both of her hands under his arms, facing him. With her hypnotic green eyes glowing, she whispered, "Link…"

"Er…" Link had opened his eyes; his blue ones stared directly into her green ones. It was already too late. He felt the burning desire for her in his chest again.

"That's right…" Calypso began laughing to herself in success. Unexpectedly, from the ground, a spinning Keyblade raced past the back of her head like a rotary spinning blade, nearly hitting her. Then when another Keyblade raced toward her, she adeptly dodged it in her floating position. "What the—?"

Just then, a third spinning Keyblade raced for her, nearly taking her head off. "Knock it off!"

Sora, Riku, and Kairi stood readily on the pavement, joined by Murray, Sly, Donald, and Crunch. The Chosen Keyblader shouted up, "Calypso! Come down here and fight us!"

"Oh, I'd love to," Calypso earnestly called back down. "But I've got an important meeting tonight with a bunch of skilled racers, so maybe next time, Spike."

"That's SORA!" exclaimed the Chosen One.

"Whatever." Calypso's and Link's bodies dematerialized in midair, leaving the Sayan Mountains.

"No…" Kairi uttered.

Even though they weren't best friends, Sora still lost an ally to the enemy. Another ally. He summoned his Ultima Weapon and angrily jammed the tip into the ground. "They're gone…"

* * *

_And right here starts the third arc of BandiChron: Legends United, Mavo's Arc. (Yes, it overlaps the second one.)_

_On the next chapter, our heroes in London receive the startling news about Link being kidnapped via phone call from Crunch. Despite hearing this, they must concentrate on preparing for the approaching big race. Meanwhile, focus will be pivoted to the shaken legends in Russia as they try to pick up the pieces and find out where to go from here. Also, Orphco awakens alone and imprisoned in a small interrogation room with hot, buzzing lights, a lurking voice demanding answers from him, and an immense pain in his lower lip. Will the Precursor of Twilight reunite with his chosen heroes? Well, yeah._

_Stay tuned for **The Warm Up**!_


	51. The Warm Up

_Just so there's no confusion, those last two chapters take place before the Twisted Wipeout racers' meeting in Chapter 48._

**Chapter 51: ****The Warm Up**

Opening his black eyes, a bright row of lights assaulted Orphco's sensitive and blurry vision. He looked around to see that he was knelt down on the filthy floor of a small and grimy room. Two shackles attached to the ceiling were affixed around his blue wrists, both strung up above his head. Orphco craned his neck lazily as he took in his surroundings. His sunken eyes drifted from one end of the room to the other; he winced a little, feeling a fountain of hurt spring from his bottom lip. He tugged at the shackles holding his arms above him, making a rattling noise. The first thing Orphco thought was, What…

"…Happened?"

Looking ahead, the wounded precursor saw his reflection in a large mirror, which was probably a one-way mirror that detectives use in interrogations. A red light illuminated throughout the already-bright room. Orphco looked up to see the red light's source was coming from a camera mounted on a high-up location of the wall in front of him. The camera panned and twitched a bit before focusing in on Orphco's wretched body.

Suddenly, a dark, enigmatic voice rang over the intercom, "Psychological evaluation, Day 3: patient finally wakes up from comatose."

"Patient…? Comatose…?" the precursor repeated. "Am I in a hospital?"

"Rehabilitation treatment: _what is your name?"_

"Huh?"

"I said, _what is your—?"_ (1)

"DETECTIVE!" yelled a woman's voice. "Stop playing with the intercom!"

"Oh, sorry, Inspector Fox! I was just…uh…Here, I'll let you take over!"

Carmelita's voice came over the intercom again, "Right. Suspect number six-twenty-six, you are inside of a prison holding chamber in France. When I found you lurking near that tree-house on Wumpa Island three days ago, I gave you a full dosage of my shock blaster. You fit the description of one of the shady crooks who kidnapped my partner, Sly Cooper."

Orphco drooped his head, hiding his grin. "How did you find the island?"

"I investigated a mountain valley in China where certain Intel told me Sly was there. I must've just missed him, but I did get information from an elder who told me he had headed off to a place called Wimpa Island. I searched that place up and found out that Wimpa Island is a nuclear testing zone, so something seemed off. One of my officers told me he had heard of a Wumpa Island just north of Australia and that it was a perfectly natural place with an abundance of Titan life."

"Go on, Miss Fox…"

"I made the decision to go alone. Upon arriving, I was attacked by those Titans lurking inland. After a few hours of hiking, I found the crudely built tree house on the edge of the island, but it was deserted. There was evidence of fifteen or twenty people living there at one time, maybe only hours before. Would you happen to know anything about that, suspect?"

"…" Orphco continued smirking at the floor.

"Yes, or no, blue man!"

"So I've been unconscious for three days?" Orphco countered.

"Answer the question!"

"My brethren must think I'm dead…" Orphco concluded, his smirk fading. "I must return to the heroes after I recover."

Carmelita exclaimed over the intercom, "HEY! What are you mumbling about?"

Once again, the bald precursor countered the inspector's question with one of his own. "Why am I in such a small, closed-off room?"

"That, I can answer, blue man," Inspector Fox complied. "While we were keeping you unconscious, we ran some blood tests to figure out why your pigmentation shows up as that color. Every test we ran was inconclusive, so as far as I'm concerned, you're a toxic man."

"And as far as I'M concerned, I don't need to be here." Orphco's tattered black cloak started to waver around from an invisible wind. The entire room began to radiate with light from the Precursor of Twilight.

"What—what are you doing?" Inspector Fox yelled. "Stop that right now, criminal! Don't make me shock you again!"

It was then that Orphco noticed his sunglasses were missing when his light began to get brighter and brighter. Crud, and he didn't remember there being another pair at his sanctuary. Suddenly, Orphco's thoughts were severed short on account of the fact that Carmelita had entered the interrogation room from a door behind the precursor.

"Knock it off!" the inspector ordered.

Orphco looked over his shoulder to spot Carmelita about ten feet behind him, wielding her shock pistol. With her blue hair being blown all over the place, Carmelita yelled, "You'd better stop on the count of three!

"Almost there…" Orphco muttered, concentrating as hard as he could.

"One!"

"A little more time…"

"Two!"

"…Yes, I've found it!"

"Two and a half—!"

"Three," Orphco cut her off. As soon as he said that, the light engulfed the entire interrogation room.

Carmelita instinctively (and blindly) fired her pistol at what was once Orphco's spot, only hearing the sound of the tiles in the floor cracking. Once the room's lighting returned to the proper scale, Carmelita Fox stared with wide eyes at the empty shackles hanging from the ceiling.

"Un…believable…that man can teleport?" the inspector began talking to herself. "How is that even possible? HOW?" Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself and said drearily, "Sly could be anywhere…but I can't give up! I will find you, Cooper!"

* * *

Crash stumbled out of his room, rubbing his forehead tenderly. "That dream was so unusual, yet it was one of the sanest dreams I've had lately."

Walking down the spiral stairway, Crash entered the large, sunlit dining hall. Over the shiny, silver banister, he spotted Coco, Ratchet, Daxter, and Goofy sitting at a circular breakfast table. At another table near theirs, a few of what looked like Rade Hedge's friends were sitting down, chatting. While Rade himself was nowhere to be found, Crash guessed that the colorful, anthropomorphic creatures were affiliated with the blue hedgehog. One was an orange fox who appeared to be the youngest in the group; another was a red echidna wearing big white gloves with two spikes on each gloves' outer knuckles. (Crash could easily tell this animal was an echidna simply because he'd met a lot of echidna-people in Wumpa City and Australia.) There was a pink-furred, skirt-wearing female creature who was possibly a hedgehog, or something in that family, and there was also a silver-furred male hedgehog sitting next to her. Next to the silver hedgehog was a young, almost childlike, coffee-colored rabbit girl with an orange skirt. She seemed to be holding a…something. Whatever it was, it was a small, onion-shaped blue creature with a red bowtie.

Those were the only people in the dining hall; before Crash had time to ask what they were eating for breakfast, a metallic object flew at his head from his right peripheral vision.

"WHOA!" Crash yelped, ducking down instinctively. He stood back up to see a floating device with a shiny lens hovering around his head. Instantly, he put up karate hands, defensively swaying to the left and right. "Shoo! Go away!"

Just then, another device popped up from behind Crash, startling the bandicoot so much that he punched it square in the lens, disabling the device. Seeing the buzzing gadget on the floor gave Crash an idea for the remaining floating apparatus.

"Hm…" Crash said with a smirking expression, his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. He brought back both of his hands to one side of his body and quickly threw them forward, screaming, "Hadouken!"

The device exploded from Crash's point-blank Mojo Blast, actually creating a smoky mess for himself. The fur on his entire face was blackened from the small explosion; Crash laughably blinked twice, realizing that that last maneuver wasn't such a great idea.

Everyone inside the dining hall was giving Crash odd looks. Ratchet sighed and said, "C'mon, Chris! Don't destroy the cameras!"

"Cameras?" Crash repeated, walking down the stairs to join the diners.

Coco answered, "Yeah, don't you remember Calypso talking about reality TV?"

"Oh, yeah…" Another floating camera hovered near Crash's head, recording his every move. This made Crash nervous, as said in a strained voice, "Must…resist urge…to blow it up…"

Daxter hopped up on the table, already laughing about something, "Oh man, Chrissy-Boy—you really lost your cool last night!"

Crash narrowed his eyes comically. Could Daxter have known about his mysterious dream? He asked gravely, "What are you saying?"

Ottsel gave a wink and a nudge to the air, "You know, with that Minerva babe!"

"Oh yeah…" Crash replied, slightly relieved. "Hey, I played it cool with her!"

"Well, my friend, your definition of cool is WAY different than mine." Orange Lighting put his hands on his hips and laughed heartily. "But who can blame ya? Miss Mink is one hot piece of lady, I'll tell you that much! Even you could agree, right Goofy?"

The court knight immediately reddened, trying to cover his flustered look with his hands. "Shucks, I…uh…"

"C'mon, say it!" Daxter urged.

"Uh…why d'ya hafta put _me_ on the spot?" Goofy asked, screwing up his face. Then, his face literally froze like that.

"Okay…what about you, Ratchet?" Daxter shifted from the dog-man, who was still in his frozen state. "Tell me she wasn't an animal goddess on earth."

Ratchet scratched his neck, raised an eyebrow, and looked down at his plate full of bacon. "Yeah, she was attractive…"

"She was a TEN!" Daxter agreed.

"Maybe…"

"Maybe she was a hundred degrees!"

"Something like that…" Ratchet agreed, predicting that the bandicootess next to him would explode in three, two…

Coco furiously hit the table and yelled at Daxter, "Geeze, do you have a 'hot girl' thesaurus, or something?"

The ottsel brushed some dirt off his furry shoulder and replied smoothly, "Yeah, but I lost it in the Wasteland months ago."

Crash sat down at the table and muted out Coco's and Daxter's bickering. He turned to inspect the rest of the dining hall, wondering where everyone else might be. As he did so, a purple cat-looking creature entered the room, wearing large pink boots and a purple coat. She walked up to Rade's friends' table and asked, "Where is Son—I mean, Rade?"

The coffee-colored rabbit with the orange dress answered in a light and sweet voice, "We think he left to go for a run."

"And you know how he hates the media," the orange fox added. "He should be back in an hour."

The purple cat shrugged and said, "I guess we should get to work without him."

The silver hedgehog rolled his yellow eyes and sarcastically remarked, "Right, because he isn't the most important person in our side of the competition."

"Don't worry, Silver, Rade'll be back in no time!" the orange fox positively replied. Obviously, the silver-colored hedgehog's name was…Silver.

The rabbit quickly corrected the fox, "No, Terrick, you mean Syfer!"

The fox called "Terrick" quickly tried to cover up his mistake, "Oh yeah! Right!"

While theses new anthropomorphic animals were communicating with each other, Crash decided to listen closely. Although it was hard to hear the colorful mammals' conversation over Coco's, Ratchet's, and Daxter's arguing, Crash heard "Terrick" mistake the silver one's name. Immediately, he suspected that they were trying to cover up their names, just like him and his team.

Nonetheless, Crash continued to eavesdrop on the other racing team's discussion. The pink female hedgehog crossed her arms and said in a pouty tone, "Well, I hope Rade never comes back! He's been acting so difficult lately, like, he's so distant from me!"

Uneasily, Terrick volunteered to reply, "Um…he always acts that way with you, Ally…"

The girl called "Ally" glowered at Terrick with an annoyed look. "Yeah, well, he's gotten worse! He completely blew me off earlier, and I don't want to have anything to do with him!"

"Cut him some slack," Terrick defended. "It's his sleeping problem."

"Hey, are you guys trying to cover up your names?" Crash asked bluntly, discontinuing both Coco's arguments and the fox's discussion in the dining hall.

"What…?" Silver—I mean, Syfer the Hedgehog responded after an awkward pause.

"Yeah, you know, are you guys trying to go undercover?" Crash pried again.

A camera floated near Ally's face, capturing her nervous expression. Through the brick-shaped device's lens, Amy—I mean, Ally (gosh darn it!) could be seen stuttering, "Um…we—er, uh…"

The red echidna, who had remained silent throughout the entire conversation, finally opened his eyes, uncrossed his arms, stood up, shook his spiked fist at Crash, and yelled, "Why don't you stay outta our business, orange-boy!"

"Sheesh, I was only asking," Crash withdrew, nervously shaking his hands in a meek manner.

Meanwhile, in the first floor of the hotel, Jak, Clank, Keira, Bentley, and Mario were doing some poking around with one of the new racing vehicles lined up in the wide and spacious garage. This hovercraft was the sleek and blue _Assegai_, the ship that caught Jak's eye.

To describe the ship's shape in a few words, it looked like a "Y", the base of it being the back end while the two prongs were the frontal wings. The cockpit was located where the two prongs and base meet in the middle; the thruster was, of course, in the back.

"Can't wait to take this out for a spin," Jak impatiently stated, running his hand along the pearlescent blue finish. A floating camera hovered around him, but he ignored it as he asked. "When can we hit the practice track?"

On a sliding board, Keira rolled out from underneath the _Assegai_ and answered, "Whenever that guy and his daughter are done. Cut them some slack, Mar, their wife and mother died. I'm sure you can understand."

"Sadly, I don't."

Bentley suddenly interjected, "Hey, speaking of that…is anyone else getting a shock of morality about this whole thing?"

Keira asked, "What do you mean?"

"That guy…I feel like we're going to get in his way of reuniting with his wife."

The other heroes took a moment to think about Bentley's reflection; were they going to ruin that man's chance of having a happy family again? Clank raised a metal finger to suggest, "I propose that we try our best not to eliminate Mister Hughes. If we manage to win the competition, why not make a wish to bring back all those who were killed that day the track was created?"

Jak pondered this with Keira, Bentley, and Mario, and finally agreed, "Clank, that's a great idea. Alright, I'll try to win it all, but don't expect a miracle."

* * *

In the Twilight Realm's heavens, General Eurathaccus was pacing back and forth in his quarters, thoughts racing in his head. Glen and Gladdus were nervously standing off to the side with their heads sunken past their shoulders. With an anxious tone, the blonde, teenaged precursor asked, "So, Daddy…are you still mad about what happened to Link?"

The General stopped pacing to answer, "No, I'm over that. Although that was the worst screw-up you two have ever committed, there's something else on my mind."

"Then why'd you call us in, General?" Glen asked, running his fingers through his orange hair in relief.

"Just a few minutes ago, I felt a familiar spirit on Earth. Its life-force was incredibly weak, but I think it belonged to Orph—"

A few feet behind the General, a great light flashed and the bald precursor himself stood there, looking battered and tattered. Glen and Gladdus stared in awe at the being they once thought was a dead man. Eurathaccus apparently didn't notice Orphco was standing right behind him, so he continued, "You know, I don't really know why I chose to not finish that last sentence. Must be the mountain cider. Anyway, I think that weak power I sensed belonged to—"

"Orphco!" Glen and Gladdus yelled in delight, levitating over to their friend to give him long-time-no-see hugs.

"Right," the General replied, surprised that they knew who he was talking about. Turning around, his second announcement was cut short when he noticed the "aliveness" of his precursor friend. Smiling, Eurathaccus was gung ho as he shouted, "Egad, man! What in Sam Hylian happened to you?"

With his arms around Glen and Gladdus, Orphco only replied lowly, "I'm gonna need some new sunglasses…"

Back in Russia, Sora led the broken, dwindling group of seven down the street of the tourist town. Sly had hurt his back when he crashed through the wall of the clothing shop the day before. However, he only started feeling the intense pain that morning when they woke up. Murray was carefully supporting his friend with one chunky arm as they walked.

Crunch walked in the group's rear, glaring at his cell phone. "Why won't you answer, Crash?" Sighing, he said, "…we need to get him a new phone plan. And a new phone. He's been stuck with that ancient artifact for years."

"Speaking of precursors," Donald grouchily adjusted the conversation, "where are those two kids?"

"No idea," Crunch replied. "And I can't help but wonder who's gonna be next."

"Don't think like that Crunch," Murray ordered over his shoulder. "We can't let those bad guys strike fear into us, or else they've already won."

Sly requested Murray to walk slower. "Hey, not so rough…Do any of you think this whole thing might have something to do with that premonition the gypsy-lady had?"

"No way," Riku answered determinedly. "I've never believed in psychics, and I don't plan on starting today."

Crunch scratched his furry chin in thought. "Well, she did make the sand fly around in the air…"

"Big deal, I could probably do that with my eyes closed," Riku nullified again. "Besides, she said something about ALL of us dying at once. And as far as I'm concerned, no one is dead except for Orphco…and Jeycko…and a lot of those innocent people in London…"

Fifteen minutes later, the heroes were nearing their destination: Mikhail's general store. Out of the blue, Sora asked Kairi, "So what do ya think of Jak?"

Caught off guard, she scratched behind her ear and asked, "What…uh…what do ya mean?"

"Nothing really," Sora replied in a placid tone. "I just kind of miss his leadership skills. You know what I mean?"

"Oh, I see," Kairi responded, half relieved, half intrigued. It was then that she gave her friend a smirk.

"You see what?" Sora asked, noticing the smirk.

"You look up to Jak, don't you?"

Her words stayed with the Keyblader for a while, swirling around his head. Jak always seemed to know what to do when he was cornered; he always had a Plan B, or even C. And although it was evident that darkness clouded the blonde hero's heart, Jak kept his distance from the dark impulses and stayed within the light, a trait Sora deeply respected.

Finally, Sora answered Kairi's question, "Yeah, I guess I do sort of look up to him. He's kind of like a brother."

"Aw…" the princess of heart cooed.

Sora rubbed the back of his neck in slight embarrassment. Before he could say anything back to her, he suddenly noticed someone rather…noticeable standing in front of the general store they were appraching.

"Get a load of that guy," Sora mumbled under his breath.

The man stood tall with his arms crossed next to a green lamppost, and he wore a lot of black clothing. He wore black gloves, black boots, and a black cloak with a blood-red cloth wrapped around his waist. Underneath his cloak, a brown vest was visible, most likely armor of sorts. The edges of the cloak were colored purple all around, even on the hood, which was pulled over his head. He had on black aviator sunglasses, hiding his eyes. Around his neck was an unusual necklace with an ornament that closely resembled an upside-down North Star. (2)

Soon, Sora wasn't the only one to take notice of the intimidating man. Kairi actually drew closer to Sora, and Riku and Crunch simultaneously clenched their fists, ready for trouble. However, each hero kept silently approaching the store, trying to remain as casual as possible.

The menace of a man must have taken notice of the heroes and their small, anxious reactions to his appearance; his pale face smirked in return, as if he had expected them to fear his form. However, it wasn't clear who this man was smirking to because of his dark sunglasses.

Sora led the way into the store, expecting an array of scenarios to happen, but none did. But as he passed the tall man, he did feel something hot rush past him. He quickly brushed off the feeling and entered the store with Kairi at his side.

"Sora…that guy was so creepy," Kairi whispered.

Sora concurred, "Yeah, I got a really bad vibe from him. It's probably best we stay away if we run into him again."

After the other heroes had entered the store and had their fair share of notifying each other about how weird that man was, Crunch, Donald, and Sora raced over to the clerk, Mikhail Masoluv, who kindly greeted them in his thick Russian accent, "Well if it isn't the English-speakers! Have you come to bring me more money?"

Sora answered, "No, we're just really down on our luck."

The clerk inquired, "No luck on finding that secret lab, eh?"

"Nope," Donald answered this time. "We don't have any leads, and one of our allies has been KIDNAPPED by the enemy!"

"Extremely unlucky," Mikhail noted.

Crunch added, "And it seems like our enemies are watching our every move."

"Really?" Mikhail asked, intrigued.

"How else could they know we were here, or that Link has a crush on Kairi?" Crunch said, frustrated with their unknowingness. "And those fools used disguise-tactics to steal him!"

"Disguise tactics, you say…" said the clerk, his Russian accent now absent.

Crunch nodded, "Yeah, it was some enemy of ours. You've heard of Arden Calypso, haven't you? The founder for them Twisted races?"

"Of course…" Mikhail plainly replied, his accent still missing.

Sora noticed the accent was missing the moment Mikhail repeated "disguise tactics." With a funny look, Sora cupped a hand around his ear and requested, "Wait, say that again…?"

Continuing to speak in a regular American dialect, the storeowner said with a creepy tone, "Would you call it disguise-tactics if one is hiding in plain sight?"

"What are you…?" Sora began, the other words "talking about?" failing to escape his mouth. Currently, he was sharing the same confused expression as the duck mage and red-furred bandicoot next to him.

Mikhail ran a hand over his slicked back hairdo; to mention his hairdo, it looked like a youngster's long hair, reaching a few inches past his shoulder blades, and it was also slicked with hair grease, giving it a shiny look. Rubbing the hair grease out of the right side of his head, Mikhail's hand started blackening as it picked up another substance from his hair.

"You see," Mikhail continued, still rubbing what looked like black dye from one side of his hair, "it takes a true master of disguise to alter very little about his appearance and go out in the world, winning the trust of others until he decides to strike."

Riku, Kairi, Murray, and the ailing Sly Cooper joined the three perplexed heroes at the check-out counter. The so-called storeowner was revealing that the right side of his hairdo was actually silver or gray-colored, and it stuck up for some reason. "And now, it's my turn to strike."

Dr. Mavo held up a hand to Crunch's petrified face, summoning a pitch black Mojo Blast in his palm. Less than a millisecond later, the blast erupted from his hand and collided into the unlucky bandicoot's face. With the force of a runaway dodge-ball, the ball of Mojo exploded against Crunch's nose, pushing him back to the other side of the store.

During Crunch's flight across the store, the six other heroes standing behind him were forced to leap away, lest they fall victim to getting crushed. This wasn't quite easy for Sly, who yelled in pain as he hit the floor a bit too hard. "For God's sake," the raccoon swore under his breath. "What's going on NOW?"

Dr. Mavo leaped over the counter, sprinting over towards Crunch's body, which was thrown against the opposite wall like a ragdoll. "We have him, my liege!"

Standing to his feet, Sora drew his Ultima; in horror, he shouted, "What are you doing? Stop!"

When the evil doctor arrived near the unconscious bandicoot who he believed to be Crash, he knelt down and propped Crunch's head up, feeling his pulse. "He's still alive."

As he said that, a black mist floated in through the store's front door and appeared next to Mavo and Crunch; the smoky black entity never took form, it only engulfed Crunch's body, swallowing him whole.

Mavo turned around to face the remaining heroes. A look of mission completion crossed his face, smirking as he raised a hand high above his head.

Enraged, Murray yelled, "You won't get away with his!"

"Looks like I did," Dr. Mavo replied nastily. "How about some fireworks for a going-away present?"

The six remaining heroes saw the black, explosive Mojo Blast swell up on Mavo's hand, and a split second later, the entire room became a blinding light show.

* * *

1) The _"What is your name?" _thing was a reference to the new Devil May Cry trailer. People were very P.O.'ed about it because Dante's hair was black, and he looked like a skinny, emo punk. One: Dante's hair was white on the back, so quit moaning about it. That probably means his white patch of hair spreads to the rest of his head throughout the game. Two: that is supposed to be an origin story, so he's obviously around the age of 16 or 17. That's all I'm saying.

2) My Draksin art is completed. And as for that upside down North Star, it's actually the inverted cross in my uncut version of the story.

**Aku Aku:** What the H? I'm not even mentioned in this chapter!

_Hm. I guess that's what happens when you skip out to go to an aerobics class.  
_

**Aku Aku: **Oh right…allow me to handle these bios!

Miles "Tails" Prower

**Age:** 9  
**Gender:** Male  
**Species:** Fox

Hehehe…look at his name. Miles. Because he runs fast. Wait a minute, Miles Prower? Sounds like Miles…Per-Hour! Amazing! So he's been Sonic's loyal sidekick since the good ole days of running on a 2-D plane, and he's one smart snicker doodle! For his young age, he's also a pretty darn good mechanic, inventor, and scientist. He's even built multiple incarnations of his prized jet, the Tornado, according to the anime, anyway. Currently, he's going undercover as "Terrick." Tails first appeared in _Sonic the Hedgehog 2__,__ 1992._

Blaze the Cat

**Age: **15**  
Gender: **Female**  
Species: **Cat

She's got the fire, and you're gonna get burned. While a bit reserved at any other time, she can be set off like a time bomb when she's extremely ticked. Her abilities are reminiscent of Fire Ballet, which is something I just made up. Currently, she's helping Sonic win the Grand Prix to get him some mental help and going under the name of "Bianca." She's made many appearances in different _Sonic_ canon, like the one where…well, it was the game where…something about a black knight? Anyway, she's made her first appearance in the slightly amusing DS game _Sonic Rush__, 2005_.

Silver the Hedgehog

**Age: **15  
**Gender: **Male  
**Species: **Hedgehog

Silver the Hedgehog is from some two hundred years in the future, according to that one 360 and PS3 game that came out a long time ago. He's also from the future in _Sonic Rivals_. Silver has uncanny telekinetic powers that allow him to move/push anything out of his way with the force of a speeding hedgehog, kind of like Starkiller off of _The Force Unleashed_. He's an easy-going guy, often overdramatizing things a bit, and even his creators compared his personality to Trunks from Dragon Ball Z. He's helping Sonic win the Twisted Wipeout competition under the fake name of "Syfer." Silver first appeared in _Sonic the Hedgehog__, 2006._

Cream and Cheese

**Ages:** 7 and…um…  
**Genders:** Female and…um…  
**Species:** Rabbit and Chao

Cream is the little sweet and innocent girl of the _Sonic_ clan. Optimistic, strong of heart, and unfavorable to violence, Cream makes sure her good-girl image stays clean. Her little friend, Cheese, mostly does the fighting for her, using its head to make its point. Speaking of that little Chao, what is a Chao, you ask? Beats me. I never really looked into that Chao stuff when I'm running across the screen as Sonic or Knuckles. Apparently, there are good kinds of Chao and bad, but Cheese is reportedly neutral. Anyway, these two allies to "Rade" are undercover as "Rebecca" and "Chelsea", respectively. Cream and Cheese first appeared in the GBA title, _Sonic Advance 2__, 2003_.

**Aku Aku:** The deed is done. Proceed.

_Right, so our heroes are definitely in trouble. Mavo is under the impression that Crunch is the one who ended Reiden's rule, and is determined to capture him for his master, Draksin. Read on, I say, read on…_


	52. The Catalyst

Go to the top of my profile page. There's a link to my deviantART gallery where I've finally got the pictures of Reiden, Calypso, Draksin, Mavo, and Isaac uploaded! Bear in mind that I only used Paint, so don't expect anything really super high quality. I mean it. However, I am a perfectionist, and I did my best on each picture, just like these chapters. I don't care if comments are left or not, as I only use that site to help my readers visualize my characters. While you're there, check out the pictures of my new and old avatar designs and Crash and Coco's fictional father, Burnec.

What are you still doing here? Go check 'em all out! NOW! The chapter will still be here when you get back!

**Chapter 52: The Catalyst**

In the blink of an eye, Sora was on the ground, lying on his back near the shack they had been spending their nights. He sat up, supported his weight with a single elbow, and looked over the hill to see the tourist town far below. Suddenly, an explosion erupted from one part of the town, making Sora gape in shock. He turned his head to find his five allies also sitting up from the dirty ground to witness the explosion.

"What the…weren't we just down there?" Sora pondered. "How'd we get up here so fast?"

"What about Crunch?" Sly asked, not seeing the burly bandicoot. "Was he still down there?"

"You mean he was killed in the explosion?" Donald exclaimed, clasping his feathery hands to his face. "Oh, no!"

A familiar precursor's voice told the heroes, "Calm yourselves. I don't think they let Crunch die."

All six heroes looked up to spot Orphco descending down to the ground. With a new black trench coat and pair of sunglasses, Orphco solemnly said, "Hello again, heroes."

Riku rubbed his eyes in disbelief. "I don't believe it…you're alive!"

"Orphco!" Sora exclaimed. "We thought Draksin or someone else got to you!"

"Where have you been, man?" The Murray inquired, relieved to see him.

Orphco briefly explained, "When I went back to get your toothbrushes, I was attacked by that fox woman and put into a coma for three days."

"You got beat up by a girl?" Riku teased.

Murray snapped his fingers and said, "Yeah, she'll do that to you if you're not careful."

"Wait," Sly interjected, "Carmelita was on the island? How did she find out where I was?"

"She said she's been tracking you. She still thinks you were kidnapped, apparently." Orphco bowed his head. "I'm sorry I couldn't be here for you, heroes. It seems you're missing three people. Crunch was just captured. The General told me Link was taken by Calypso yesterday. So where is Aku Aku?"

"He went to go train Crash and Coco yesterday morning," Kairi answered. "He said he'd be back the day of the Twisted Wipeout competition."

Orphco scratched his chin in thought. "Hm…you're losing allies. But fear not heroes, true strength comes from the heart, not from numbers."

"With all due respect, can you tell us what exactly happened down there before Mikhail blew up the store, and why?" Riku requested.

Orphco gave the smoking tourist town a glazed glance before explaining, "That general store owner was none other than Dr. Lusef Petrovich Mavo himself. He was in disguise to fool you guys. From what I saw, he was after Crunch."

"Why?" Donald asked.

"I haven't a clue, but I'm sure they wanted him alive, which can only mean they want to use him. Also, I felt a terrible presence, and I'm sure it had something to do with that black mist that engulfed Crunch…"

"A terrible presence?" Sora repeated. "What do you mean?"

Orphco cringed as he described the evil he felt, "It was dark and tainted with Negative Mojo, the same presence I felt before Jeycko was killed. I'm certain it could belong to none other than Draksin."

"Draksin…" Sora repeated once more. Suddenly, he had a flashback of walking past that strange, creepy man on his way into the shop with Kairi. He remembered the uncomfortable vibe he got from the man. "Orphco…?"

Orphco turned, "Yes, Sora?"

"What does Draksin look like?"

"He's a terribly pale man with black hair and yellow eyes. Do you think you saw him?"

Sora crossed his arms and closed his eyes in thought. "Before we walked into the store, we saw this scary looking guy. I couldn't see his eyes through his sunglasses, but…"

"Did you all get a good look at him?" Orphco asked everyone.

"Yeah," Riku, Kairi, Sly, and Murray answered in unison.

Orphco ordered, "I need all of you to close your eyes and concentrate on that man." Everyone did as they were told, and the bald precursor began closely reading each individual's mind.

In each hero's thoughts stood the tall, black-clad man looking intimidating as usual. Indeed, his eyes were concealed by the aviator sunglasses and the hood was wrapped over his head, but Orphco could tell who that man was instantly. "Draksin…"

"I knew it…" Sora mumbled.

Rubbing his belly, Murray added, "Just being around that guy made me sick to my stomach."

"That's so strange," Kairi commented. "Do you think he knew we were the heroes?"

"He had to have known," Sly concluded. "He must've been working with Mavo to kidnap Crunch!"

"I wonder why he chose not to fight us," Riku thought out loud.

Orphco corrected, "No, Riku. He would've killed you."

"So what now?" Sora asked.

"Draksin didn't do a very good job of concealing his power whenever he teleported out of the explosion with Crunch. I imagine it's a harder thing for him to do when carrying someone as big as him. I tracked his dark power off in that direction…" Orphco pointed past the shack, deeper into the mountains. "Come together, and I'll teleport us in the general area."

* * *

"This baby's got some good handling, eh Jak?" Daxter commented, riding with Jak inside the _Assegai. _

Making a sharp and speedy turn around the curvy practice track, Jak concurred, "Hell yeah! I'm thinkin' about takin' her back to Haven with us!"

The ship sped through an S-shaped curve along the afternoon sunlit track. Jak abruptly hit the brakes to stop next to Keira, Bentley, and Mario. Opening the cockpit and jumping out, Jak and Daxter stood and posed next to their new hovercraft. A floating camera whizzed by and captured the essence of their little parade.

"Alright, flyboys, tell us how it went," Mario cut to the chase.

"Like a beauty," Daxter quickly answered for Mar. "Of course, Jak was barely able to handle himself, so I had to step in and take control of things."

"I find that extremely hard to believe," Bentley dismissed.

The aqua-haired girl crossed her arms and asked, "So when ya gonna let me drive it around?"

"In time," Jak plainly answered with a grin. "We've got all kinds of modifications to do, and I want you to drive the complete version."

Glowering, Keira retorted, "Are you serious?"

Giving the impatient Sage-in-training a wink, Jak said, "Yeah. Some things are 'worth the wait', wouldn't you agree?"

Speechless, Keira only staggered, "You…suck…"

"Point," Jak congratulated himself.

* * *

A few hours had gone by, and Sora and co. had searched a fraction of the mountain pass they had teleported into. The sun still shown brightly through the partly cloudy sky but was nearing the evening.

The party of seven hiked down through a valley and into a wide and flat basin. There, they found a long river that connected itself to the base of another mountain up ahead. Following that stream of water, the party soon realized that the mountain they were approaching was one of the mountains they encountered on the gondola ride; in other words, they were walking right towards the outer tip of the ride.

"He's definitely around here somewhere," Orphco determined. "His evil plagues this land!"

"I hope we find him so we can put an end to these guys, already," Sora stated coldly.

"You're going to put an end to us?"

Sora quickly whirled around to figure out who said that. The voice certainly didn't belong to anyone in his party. "Who said that?"

That was when he saw _**him**_ standing there. The tall brooding demon of a man grinned at what Sora had previously said and taunted him, "How about you put an end to that heroic mouth of yours."

Drawing forth his Keyblade, Sora shouted, "DRAKSIN!"

Their attention drawn, Kairi, Murray, Sly, Riku, Donald, and Orphco looked from Sora to the empty spot the Keyblader was yelling to. Taking this seriously, Orphco sternly asked, "Where? Where do you see Draksin?"

"What's wrong with you?" Sora asked. "He's standing RIGHT there!"

Once again, the other six heroes looked from Sora to the clearly empty spot. Still being supported by Murray, Sly chastised angrily, "Now definitely isn't the time for games, Sora!"

Dumbfounded by their blindness, Sora yelled again, "HE'S HERE WITH US!"

"They don't see me Sora…" Draksin suavely said. "You're the only one who does. But how is that possible if I'm not even here?"

"Enough mind games!" Sora shouted, charging at the dark entity. Raising his Keyblade to strike, a blinding light suddenly halted him. Withdrawing his Ultima, Sora felt the world around him swirl in a flurry of colors. Grabbing his head in a vain attempt to keep his sanity, Draksin's voice echoed around him:

"Even if you gave in to hate and rage, you will still be powerless against me."

He suddenly felt the ground meet his face. He turned over on his back to see Draksin towering above him with a glowing red background behind him. Sora was paralyzed; slowly, Draksin's hand lowered closer and closer to the Chosen One's throat.

"Sora, snap out of it!" said a desperate voice. "Please, come back to us!"

Sora closed his eyes briefly and reopened them. The regular world accompanied his vision, along with some disturbed friends. He was currently lying on the ground, sweating on someone's arm.

Kairi was among the most concerned for him. Holding her friend up with an arm under his neck, she asked "Sora, are you with us?"

Shaking from the horror of his mind lapse, Sora stared right through her eyes. For a moment, he remained completely still.

"Sora…?" Riku nervously attempted, peering down at him.

"I'm here," Sora suddenly blurted. Standing to his feet, he looked back over to the spot where he previously saw Draksin. "But he wasn't."

"Did you really see him?" Donald asked, fearing for the worst.

"Yeah…"

Orphco stated, "I never knew Draksin had the power to possess people."

"To possess people…" Riku murmured under his breath. He thought about how strangely Sora had acted two nights ago, how he mindlessly walked towards the campfire, but he kept those thoughts to himself for now.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in London, Crash was on the scenic rooftop of the hotel, which overlooked part of the undestroyed section of London and the curvy practice race track down below. Currently, he was sitting Indian-style on the rooftop's pavement, trying his hardest to focus on meditation.

"I've got to surround myself in Mojo…" Crash instructed himself. "And then I need to use it to push myself through the air, like a thruster…"

He felt the invisible Mojo exit his body through his skin, swirling around him like a cloud. Next, he transported the Mojo underneath him, causing the force to lift him up. Opening an eye, Crash realized he had accomplished Mojo Flight.

"Yes!" the bandicoot cheered in joy.

"About time."

Crash looked over his shoulder to spot Coco and Aku Aku secretly watching him on the edge of the rooftop. His smart-mouth sister congratulated him, "Awesome, big bro! Maybe during the next lesson you won't take all day."

"Oh, ha-ha," Crash countered. "Let's see your Mojo Blast, sis!"

Coco sneered and levitated high up above the hotel. "Why don't you fly up here and say that to my face?"

"You're on!" Crash shouted, flying up as well.

Aku Aku sighed. As if he had said it for the hundredth time, he monotonously warned the young Mojo-users, "Careful children. Flying exhausts your Mojo quicker than usual. Don't fly too high. Or you'll fall."

Sure enough, both bandicoots were plummeting downward in a matter of seconds, screaming at the tops of their lungs. Aku Aku synthesized a glowing green blanket to catch them with.

"Whew that was a close one," Crash said, relieved.

"Is it me, or are you really slow at flying?" Coco noticed.

"Slow? I ain't slow!" Crash contradicted.

"Race ya!" Coco challenged.

"You're on!" Crash shouted once more, accepting the challenge.

They both flew up in the air again; on cue, Aku Aku sighed and said, "Careful children. Flying exhausts your Mojo quicker than usual. Don't fly too high. Or you'll fall."

* * *

_Oh, man! Mojo Blast and Flight? Kinda makes me wonder what that moovy __**Uka Uka Reborn**__ is gonna be like!_

_Ah, crud, here comes my alter ego… _

**-X-**

**This is HybridXKenshen once again.**

**Those who feel Draksin in their way = greatest warriors of light. **

**Demonic Entry #3**

_**Is hatred worth dying for?  
Anyone who feels it's so is a total idiot.**_

_**More than one life to live…**_

**Kenshen out.**

**-X-**

_Thanks, but try knocking next time. Anyway…_

_It seems Draksin has a clutch-hold over Sora somehow. Who will he target next?_

_The heroes must press forward, however, as there is no time to lose. And how soon will Mavo realize Crunch is not the bandicoot they're looking for? Find out in **Getting Psycho**!_


	53. Getting Pyscho

_Only when I mention that Sora's eyes turn yellow is when he is being controlled to a point where he doesn't even realize it._

**Chapter 53: Getting Psycho**

"Release him," Draksin ordered.

Mavo pulled a lever on the control panel. The rehabilitation chamber that held Crunch's floating body drained itself of its healing liquid and opened up from its glass casing. Unconscious, Crunch sat inside the tubular, cylindrical chamber, leaning against the back wall. His fur wet, the bandicoot breathed steadily through an oxygen mask.

"I told you he'd heal in no time," Dr. Mavo stated with a smirk.

"My apologies for underestimating your practice, doctor," Draksin retracted. "What does the computer say about his attributes?"

"Hold on, they're loading." Mavo and Draksin patiently waited for the loading bar on the computer screen to completely fill up. Once it did, Crunch's stats appeared onscreen. Mavo hummed, "Hm…as expected, his Mojo-cap isn't anything to brag about. However, it shows his maximum strength is greater than Reiden's but not quite greater than Isaac's. It's somewhere in between."

"Go on," Draksin instructed.

"Well, you know how we all have our breaking points, where we're able to perform feats of superhuman ability?"

"Yes."

"It turns out that some heroes of strong will and heart have higher breaking points with much greater results than we villains. This is usually why the hero wins most of the time. I'm also guessing that Crash was able to defeat Reiden after reaching his breaking point."

"Just what are you getting at, doctor?"

"I'm saying that Crash's breaking point isn't even higher than Reiden's overall stats, save the strength department, which makes me wonder how this marsupial was even able to conquer Reiden. And if I'm not mistaken, Reiden was in his dragon form."

"So you're saying that this rat isn't even strong enough to defeat that weakling Reiden? Then how was he able to best him?"

Sighing, the dispirited doctor replied, "I see two possible scenarios: Crash got extremely lucky, and a meteor struck Reiden in his oversized head, or the blatant fact that this creature is not the one we're looking for."

"The girl…the one who can sense other people's battles from afar…she told me Crash triumphed over Reiden. This can only mean we've got the wrong guy!"

"I'm sorry, Sin," Mavo apologized. "Maybe we can figure out if this guy knows the real Crash when he wakes up."

"Sure…" Draksin hissed, frustration taking over his mind. _What other bandicoot in the world could possibly possess more power than this one?_

While Draksin wallowed in his own frustration, Dr. Mavo walked past a few lab tables to reach a box-shaped appliance that resembled a tank of sorts attached to the wall. The apparatus was rather long; it looked almost like a plastic coffin. Spurts of steam shot off the appliance from various locations; it was probably functioning in some way.

Mavo stared at a dial affixed to the appliance's front. It read "Complete."

The doctor muttered, "Perfect."

"What's perfect?" Draksin asked.

"To take your mind off our problems, I figured I'd give you this now. It's just something you have been missing for a while."

"What are you talking about, Lusef?" Draksin requested, his interest piqued.

"I'll let you see for yourself."

Dr. Mavo pressed a button on the appliance and took a step backward as the coffin-shaped appliance opened up through twin doors. As it did so, dark purple steam leaked from the box's contents, shrouding whatever was inside. Without a single moment of hesitation or uncertainty, Draksin walked forward and began to reach inside the fog-filled apparatus.

"Careful, it's sharp," Mavo cautioned.

Giving the doctor an intrigued look, Draksin narrowed his eyes to spot the sinister silhouette of what looked like a colossal sword. Reaching down for the hilt, Draksin effortlessly hauled the weapon from coffin-shaped case's insides. Instantly, the dark being began marveling at the five and a half foot long sword that dazzled in the underground lab's blazing lights.

Clearing his throat first, Mavo told his superior, "I call it the Sin Blade."

With an increasingly satisfied grin, Draksin inquired, "When did you start constructing this terrible blade, good doctor?"

"Soon after you told me the Soul Reaver was destroyed," Mavo quickly answered.

With one hand firmly wrapped around the hilt and the other lightly sweeping the side of the metal blade, Draksin's gaze drifted down to the demonic-looking eyeball lodged into the area of the blade near the hilt. The yellow-colored eye shifted around constantly and even exhibited a blink or two.

"I collected that eye when we all visited the Forgotten Realm shortly after departing from the Twilight Realm," Mavo continued, proudly relaying his exploits. "It belonged to a legendary warrior demon named Sparda in the Core of Forgotten. It is said the eye gives its wielder the power to immobilize an entire army of grunts. Everything else on that sword I made myself."

"This is what happens when I play favorites."

Mavo scratched his chin and sneakily asked, "Since I've given you a new weapon, can you show me what happens when you further control Sora?"

The Dark One didn't answer. After spinning the sword around in his hand, he slung it over his shoulder and strode across the laboratory for the exit. "If you'll excuse me, I've got some tormenting to do."

* * *

"Are you saying Draksin is there, too?" Crash asked the war-veteran Eurathaccus, shocked by the news he had just been informed.

"There's a good chance he is down there," the General answered grimly. "Why they decided to abduct Crunch is still unknown, but we do have a clue on how Link was taken. It seems Calypso has mind-controlling powers that make men do whatever she bids."

"Wicked," Mario commented indifferently.

The General continued, "We know for a fact that Link is somewhere with Calypso, but we can only guess that Crunch is wherever Dr. Mavo is hiding."

"You have to take us down there to rescue him!" Coco pled. "They need our help!"

"Coco, we have a job here," Keira reminded. "We can't just up and leave the competition."

"Then take Crash and I!" Coco proposed.

"Maybe we should try to have faith in our friends in Russia," Aku Aku counter-suggested. "Crunch is a tough guy, and I believe our friends are more than capable of taking down Dr. Mavo."

The legends had gathered inside Jak's hotel room at midnight, where the veteran precursor had strangely been waiting for them. He told everyone about the ever-changing events occurring in Russia's Sayan Mountains, which thoroughly stunned everyone in the room. "Let's just hope Mavo is the only adversary they must take down, for their sake," Eurathaccus added.

* * *

Later that night, Glen and Gladdus joined Orphco in watching over the sleeping legends attentively, trying their hardest to make up for their big "screw up." The two young(er) Precursors of Twilight peacefully levitated high in the air with the bald one meditating a few meters away, just below the mountains' skyline.

Down on the ground, our heroes rested under the stars, pioneer-style. They slept on a stone slab big enough to support all six of them. It may sound uncomfortable, but they each used an unworn article of clothing as a makeshift pillow. Lying on his black vest, Sora slept quietly with his arms behind his head. His eyebrows furrowed as he dreamed of getting chased down by two thugs in a narrow hallway. Just as he turned around and summoned his Keyblade, the bulkier of the two pursuers tackled him down and held him in place. The other thug pulled out a purple dagger and stabbed Sora right where his heart would be. The next thing he knew, Sora was screaming at the top of his lungs at the newly learned fact that his heart had been stolen from him.

Sora awoke to reality with a glazed look, blankly staring up at the star-spangled night sky. In a low voice, Sora nonchalantly reflected out loud, "Was that a promo?" (1)

Since he had woken up earlier than expected, he felt the need to get up and drain his tank. Waddling over to a tree that was far enough from the rest of the group, Sora unzipped and did his business.

As he was finishing, for unexplained reasons, Sora slammed his forehead against the tree's bark. At first, Sora yelled but then brought it to a whisper, "OU—_ouch!"_

Sora looked back to make sure no one was awakened, and quickly zipped up. "That was weir—" However, before he could finish that statement, he slammed his head into the trunk yet again. And again. And again. And one last time.

Dizzy and scared out of his mind, Sora thought that returning to his resting spot on the stone with the others would solve his Tourettes-riddled problem. Beyond his control, Sora unexpectedly starting sprinting towards the stone slab, randomly yelling, "Chicken soup and chop suey!"

This outburst caused everyone to jump awake. Sora finally halted his run in front of the stone slab, looking sheepishly embarrassed as everyone, including the precursors who had descended from above, gave him annoyed looks.

"Are you outta your flippin' mind?" Murray asked, clearly not a person to disturb in the middle of the night.

"What's the big deal? What are you screamin' for?" Donald shouted, the feathers on his head looking distraught.

Riku continued, "Do you mind explaining yourself?"

Sweating like a dog, Sora uneasily climbed back onto the slab. Lowly, he said as he lay back down on his vest, "I'm just gonna go back to sleep…sorry guys."

With a few more annoyed grunts, the heroes and precursors shuffled back to their respective positions either sleeping or keeping a watchful eye. After about fifteen minutes, the heroes had gone back to sleep.

Out of the blue, Sora's orbs for eyes flew wide open. In the fashion of a scuttling crab, Sora briskly crawled over to Kairi's sleeping frame. He leaned close to the girl's head, intently watching her sleep. Now imitating a puppy, he craned his head to the side and uttered, "Arf?"

Kairi stirred a little in her sleep. Furrowing his eyebrows, Sora leaned freakishly closer to the princess's face. They were almost nose to nose. Sora watched her closed eyelids with hard vigilance.

Speaking of vigilance, the Precursors of Twilight had barely noticed Sora's shenanigans. Only Glen and Gladdus paid attention to the disturbed Keyblader while Orphco quietly mediated.

Gladdus muttered, "Great, what's he doing now?"

Glen replied, "Good question. I say we irresponsibly watch instead of getting involved."

Back on the stone slab, Sora's freaky antics continued even further when he breathed heavily through his nose on Kairi. The princess slowly fluttered her eyelashes open until all she could see were two blue orbs staring directly into and through her own.

For a moment, only silence reigned through the air as they both stared at each other.

Finally, Sora whispered, "…Is it rabbit season yet?"

"AAAAAAAAH!" Kairi screamed, freaked out beyond her wits.

"What's going on?" Sly shouted awake, rolling to a sitting position.

"More screaming?" Riku irately blurted.

Kairi's scream had caused Sora to jump back in fright. The disturbed boy yelled, "What are you screaming at me for?"

"What are you staring at me in my sleep for?" Kairi furiously countered, breathing heavily.

"Hold on, hold on," Riku interjected. "Let's try and calm down first. Sora…are you going through something?"

"I'm not going through anything! I…" Sora trailed off.

All three precursors floated down once again. Orphco interrogated, "What is all the commotion?"

"Oh nothing," Sly Cooper sarcastically answered. "Sora just can't handle his urges."

"I'm not having any urges!" Sora barked.

Riku snapped his fingers at the thought of something. "Wait a minute….Guys, this is just like earlier today when he was possessed by Draksin! And don't forget about the time he nearly walked into the campfire!"

Donald nervously asked, "Do ya think it's somehow connected?"

"It's gotta be!" Riku exclaimed. "That's the only reason he'd act so weirdly. He might hallucinate and try to kill us, so we should tie him up!"

"Are you serious?" Sora shouted. "I just need to get some sleep, and everything will be alright tomorrow. No one needs to tie me up!" With that, Sora shuffled back to his vest and stubbornly laid down on it, shutting his eyes tightly.

"I'll make sure he doesn't disturb others," Orphco whispered to the other heroes after Sora lay on his side facing away from them.

From nowhere, Glen asked, "Okay, am I the only one hungry for chicken soup?"

Meanwhile, standing just outside Mavo's lab, Draksin leaned against the metal door, smirking to himself. Breaking character for a moment, Draksin chuckled and said, "Even a dark lord's gotta have a little fun."

* * *

_1) Yeah that was a promo for my upcoming fic, **Pulse**, which I have been working on for much too long. Seriously, I just noticed I haven't said crap about it even though it's been listed on my profile as "currently being worked on."_

_Well, folks I just looked out the window. Not only are pigs flying, but I think I see some ottsels, too. Uncharted 3 has been confirmed. Time to freeze myself and then thaw when it comes out._


	54. Mind over Masculinity

**Chapter 54: Mind over Masculinity**

"Well actually, I've only saved the world a hundred times, not a hundred and one," Crash told the stationary camera in the interview room. "But you can bet I'll make it a hundred and one times by the end of the week!"

From outside the room, Coco knocked on the door, hollering, "Hurry up in there! I've got some _meaningful_ things to tell the camera!"

"Okay, hold on!" Crash responded, irritated that his time had to be cut short. "Um, one more thing…I've been having some weird dreams…about a girl. She's got black hair and comes from some kinda anthro-species. It's weird. Every time I see her, I become less sad, like she's my only friend. And then there's this lion kid…" Crash slowly stopped speaking. With a flat look, Crash called, "Coco, are you eavesdropping?"

"Uh…no."

Crash stormed out of the interview room with a pouty look. Sounding hissy, Crash announced, "Room's all yours, Sis!"

Coco called after Crash as he walked down the hallway, "I wanna hear more about this girl and lion kid during future therapy sessions!" Shrugging, the bandicootess walked into the interview room, closing the door behind her.

Crash exited the hotel and walked down to the garage, where Bentley, Clank, Ratchet, and Goofy were tinkering with their selected airship, the _Assegai_.

Goofy was inside the cockpit, manning the ship's thrusters. He poked his head out and gave the others a thumbs-up. "All systems go!"

The engine began revving, working in tandem with the thruster in the back as it ignited. The flames from the thruster blew heavily outward. Clank stood next to the Assegai, using his built in velocity scanner to inspect the ship's propulsion. He turned to Bentley and reported, "The Assegai's acceleration is now equivalent to that of Ratchet's ship, _Aphelion_, thanks to the upgrade we gave the gearbox."

"Good, good," Bentley replied, observing the Assegai's propulsion statistics on a computer screen. "Now Mar will have no problem getting ahead in the race."

Crash walked through to the other end of the garage, giving a salute to the four. Reaching the garage's exit door, Crash walked outside into the midday's sunlight, stretching his arms and yawning. The racers' circular practice track was a few yards away, and Crash heard the revving sound of someone's vehicle driving around it.

Strolling over to see who it was, Crash stood behind the safety fence to see a red and yellow airship tearing up the track. Coming to a smooth halt next to the fence, the racing model Min Mink exited the vehicle. She tossed the keys to one of her awaiting pit crew members, who was just a scaly crocodile with a T-shirt labeled "Intern."

"Park it and lock it up for me, 'kay?" Min told the intern.

The intern stared blankly at the keys in his palm for awhile until he smiled and replied, "Yes, Miss Mink!"

As the crocodile man struggled to climb into Min's ship, the _Piranha_, Crash opened the fence and greeted enthusiastically, "Hello—I mean, hey Min!"

Minerva gave Crash an odd look, as if not recognizing the marsupial. "Come again?"

"It's me, Orange Thunder! You remember when I said how much I loved you on the monitor two nights ago, right? I'm your biggest fan! I said that, too!"

Tapping her chin gingerly, Min finally displayed a look of acknowledgment for Crash. "Oh, yeah. You were the eager little beaver with the bossy girlfriend."

"Girlfriend…? Oh, you must be talking about Coco. No, she ain't my lady. That's my bossy sister."

Min let out a long, drawn out, _"Oh…" _She walked closer to Crash, certainly raising the bandicoot's body temperature. Placing an index finger on his chest that absolutely melted Crash where he stood, Min asked sweetly, "So, you still wanna be apart of my pit crew, orange-thunder?"

Crash jumped at the chance. "Of course, I would love to! Wait…I think I just sold out my team again."

"Doesn't matter," Minerva replied, flipping her blonde hair and pretentiously strolling past the bandicoot. "I wouldn't want you cramping my style, anyway."

Crash turned around and called after the mink, "Okay, whatever you say! Meet me here later at the same spot tonight?"

"Not a chance," Min called back, not bothering to turn around.

Crash cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "Alright—I love you, Min!"

Without receiving another response from the model, Crash fainted backwards and hit the ground hard. However, he didn't seem to be hurt as he lay on the ground, serenely grasping his heart. "She touched me…I'm never washing my chest again!"

* * *

Link slowly realized he was sitting at the edge of a wide and circular bed with purple colored sheets and pillows. Blinking and shaking his head sideways, the Hylian drowsily asked no one in particular, "Where the heck am I?"

He looked around to find he was located in some really fancy bedroom of sorts. A brilliant chandelier hung from the ceiling and lit up the room's purple-shaded walls. Link noticed his weapons and shield were nowhere to be found.

"Why does this feel so familiar…?" (1) Link suddenly stood up and yelled, "Calypso! Where have you taken me?"

Just then, four Wipeout guards in black suits emerged through the bedroom's door. One of them commented, "Look's like he's finally got his freewill back!"

"And I'm about to get out of this place and rejoin my friends!" Link declared fiercely.

"Not happenin' buddy," another guard replied. "Miss Calypso told us to put the smack-down on you if you tried any funny business."

"You'll try!" Link yelled, clenching his fists.

"Feelin' lucky, kid?" another guard taunted as the four Wipeout security goons circled around the Hylian warrior.

Link calmly took an attack stance. This was enough to provoke the guard standing behind Link to charge at him, fists out. Link swayed to his right and grabbed the guard's arm before the punch landed. Next, Link whirled his knee around into the man's side and chopped at his neck, knocking him down.

Another guard behind him tried to throw a kick at Link's side, but the Hylian caught it between his arm and hip. After doing so, Link threw back his elbow into the guard's collarbone and reeled his armored fist up into his face, knocking him down as well.

Now that Link was on the offensive, he turned around to throw a punch in the third guard's face, shattering his sunglasses. The adept warrior then jumped and roundhouse kicked the last bodyguard from his left side. Shortly after landing, Link stood up and brushed off his tunic, and then proceeded to ram his fist into an approaching guard behind him, Batman-style. (2)

Having incapacitated the four guards with ease, Link got on his way out the bedroom, ready to find his way back to his group in Russia. But before he even made for the door, a figure in front of him began to materialize in the form of Arden Calypso.

"And where do you think YOU'RE going?" she interrogated. "You sit back down in your place!"

Link exclaimed, "You tricked me, you conniving temptress!"

"Oh, calm down," said Arden. "There's no need for name calling."

"Bring me my equipment and take me back to my friends!" Link demanded in a threatening tone.

Arden only laughed lowly, meandering around the bedroom's perimeter. "You know why it's so easy to control men? Because they have the easiest buttons to push. I hardly need the brainwashing powers. Let's face it: I could have any man I want with a pretty face and curvy bod. Men are so incredibly, poorly designed."

Link crossed his arms and bowed his head with an intense look about him. He continued listening to the villainous woman speak.

"But the problem is those heroic types like you. They won't just fall for any pretty lady because, more than likely, they already have a beautiful maid humbly tucked away in some dungeon. These heroes need all kinds of persuasion, like taking the form of someone they trust…"

Link's eyes flew open, but he didn't move another muscle. Calypso noticed this, and quickly taunted him, "Don't tell me you're still sore from that?"

"I've had enough of you!" Link declared. He charged forward and violently pushed Calypso against the wall. At first, he was surprised she hadn't done anything to defend herself. Fighting off the creeping feeling of remorse, Link looked past Arden's pained expression. He was a head taller than her, and he definitely had the upper hand over her when it came to strength. "Take me back to my friends right now!"

Calypso smiled and asked, "You sure you'd rather not stay?" Her green eyes glowed again.

Link blinked numerous times before replying in a strained voice, "I'd…like to…stay…" It was too late again; he was already starting to feel lust for her.

"Good boy. And what about your friends?"

"I don't…need them…"

"Then who do you need?"

"You, milady. Arden Calypso…"

Arden smiled deviously, "That's what I want to hear! Now you wait in here while I go out to speak with a client."

Link's voice was emotionless as he obeyed, "Yes, Calypso."

* * *

_1) Yes, it is familiar because that's basically how a Deathmatch fic of mine starts out. It's called **Bleed Out**. Check it out._

_2) That little fight scene with the guards was choreographed for you by me when I experienced a fight exactly like that in Batman: Arkham Asylum. Best. Comic game. Ever. (And Arkham City will kick twice as much butt.)_

_Theme Song #2 for **Arden Calypso**:_

_Wish – by **Nine Inch Nails**. Careful though - it's got about three uses of the F word. And the video is overall quite weird but still a great song._

_Check it out on my profile. Now!_


	55. Recon Mission

**Chapter 55: Recon Mission **

The sun was going down below the Sayan Mountains, and our traveling heroes were extremely exhausted. They had been walking all day, and not one of them could get back to sleep after dealing with Sora's freaky antics the night before.

Orphco, Glen, and Gladdus all seemed to be a bit fatigued as well, as flying under the hot sun all day is a taxing task. The bald Precursor of Twilight sighed and tilted his head towards the heavens as he said, "We've searched the whole area, and I still haven't sensed Draksin or Mavo nearby. Maybe we're still going about this the wrong way."

"There's no other way TO go about this," Sly replied. "You'd think with three precursors flying around, one of them would've come out by now."

"Maybe they're afraid?" Kairi suggested.

"Of what, us?" Sly facetiously replied.

"No, of Sora's weird self," precursor Gladdus counter-suggested.

After a few laughs at the Keyblader's expense, Riku nullified Gladdus' suggestion, "No, that wouldn't make sense because the bad guys are the ones controlling him."

"Thank you!" Sora interjected. After a pause, the boy suddenly contradicted himself, "No wait, I mean, no! I'm not being controlled by anybody!"

"Really? Then how do you explain all the weird stuff you've been doing lately?" Riku interrogated.

"I…I don't really know how to explain what happened yesterday and last night, but I know for a fact I didn't almost walk into the campfire. You just tackled me because you're paranoid, that's all."

Riku solemnly made his point, "Sora, when I saw you walking into it, I swear I saw you're eyes turn a different color. Now, I don't know what all this means exactly, but I think it might have something to do with mind-control."

Orphco added thoughtfully, "I say we continue to keep a close eye on Sora."

"Hear, hear!" Donald shouted in agreement, raising his feathery hand.

"I agree," Kairi sternly concurred with her arms crossed, still a little peeved about Sora's acts.

"Oh, I see," Sora said, embarrassed past irritation. "You ALL are paranoid."

"Hey, we're not the ones hallucinating about seeing Draksin," The Murray countered with a smug look. "That makes US paranoid?"

Sora looked at his shoes with a defeated look. "…Then how can I control it?"

No one could give him an answer. After a few moments of thinking, precursor Glen scratched his orange head of hair and proposed, "Hey, let's not worry about that right now. I think we could all use a much-needed break at that lake a few hills ahead."

* * *

"C'mon, just open the hood!" Crash demanded, holding the flashlight.

"It's a little heavy," Coco responded in the dark garage, struggling to lift the hood of the _Auricom_, a "W" shaped airship. It belonged to Shingo Miyami, and the reason why the two were sneaking around in someone else's repair garage at night was because Bentley had sent them on a mission to collect information about the other drivers' vehicles. Crash and Coco had snuck inside Shingo's garage with flashlight and spy-camera in hands, a simple task because somebody had left the door cracked open.

Inside the dark garage, Crash suggested, "Okay, you hold the flashlight and take pictures, and I'll hold open the hood."

Doing as she was told, Coco took the flashlight and spy-camera from her brother while he strained to lift the hood up over his head. Coco looked through the camera's lens, snapping quick pictures of the _Auricom's_ WA-Flex 3000 engine.

"Got it, Coco?" Crash asked, keeping the hood up.

"Yeah…" Coco lowered the camera and peered at her brother. "You know, while we're here, we could talk about your abnormal dreams…"

"No thanks, Coco," Crash declined irritably.

"C'mon, Crash, it sounds like evidence about our childhood!"

Crash closed his eyes as he continued to hold up the _Auricom's_ hood. Ever since he experienced that last dream that involved himself being terrorized by another child, he didn't seem too open about telling other people about his strange visions. For as long as Crash could remember, he had never been brought to tears in front of anybody, not even himself for the most part. Nor had he ever had any bully problems. When that lion kid named Nathan smirked at him in his dream, all Crash wanted to do was run away. Not even Pinstripe could rival how much despair the lion child placed inside Crash.

"Crash?" Coco pried. The young bandicootess was so persistent. She did have a point about learning the secrets of their childhood. Who knows, it might even have something to do with their father's sword.

Sighing, Crash gave in, "…Okay. How about another time?"

Smiling victoriously, Coco nodded. "Cool. Alright, I have all the pictures we need. Let's get out of here and take the loot back to Bentley!"

"Sweet!" Crash whisper-shouted, gently closing the airship's hood.

"…Oh, crud."

"What's 'oh crud'?" Crash asked.

Staring at the closed door to the outside, night world, Coco asked in a panicky tone, "Did you close the door behind you when we came in?"

"I don't know," Crash answered nonchalantly. Walking over to the door, Crash asked, "What's the big deal? Just open…it." The bandicoot paused after failing to push open the door. "Um…it's locked."

"Really? It is?" Coco asked, an overdose of sarcasm injected into her words.

"Why the heck is it locked?" Crash asked, pushing his shoulder against the door.

"Well, Sir Isaac Newton, the door was cracked open when we came here, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"By then, the door must have already been locked. From the looks of it, it's one of those locks that keep anyone from getting in or out."

"Then who closed it?"

Irritated, Coco answered, "I don't know, Crash! It could've been the wind—the most important thing now is that we find a way to get out of here!" She removed a communicator from her pocket and spoke into it, "Uh, Bentley? Crash and I are gonna need some immediate assistance getting out of Shingo's garage!"

Through the crackly link's line, Bentley's voice resounded, "Hold on, gimme a minute. I'm talking with David Huges right now…"

Coco sighed and lowered the device from her face. She looked over at Crash, who was trying to pry the door open with a crowbar. After watching him fail (and brake the crowbar in the process), Coco rolled her eyes and sarcastically suggested, "Why don't you use your head?"

"No way!" Crash rejected, thinking she meant for him to physically use his skull. "I'm not trying to mess up this hairdo!"

"Hairdo?" Coco repeated. "It's just a filthy Mohawk you hardly take care of!"

Crash tenderly ran a hand through his red hair. "It's the fact that I _don't _take care of it that makes it gorgeous!" Grabbing a bouquet of his red hair in one hand, Crash flaunted, "See all this? All naturally shaped by the environment around me, sister!"

Coco smirked and crossed her arms. "No it's not. It gets groomed."

Sneering, Crash scoffed, "Psh. And how would you know?"

"'Cuz I'm the one who grooms it!"

With a shocked look, Crash said, "…What?"

Casually, Coco confirmed, "Yep. I cut your hair while you're sleeping every two weeks."

"Are you serious—?"

"Oh, big brother, it's so fun to sneak in your room in the middle of the night, sit you up against your pillow, position your head just right, and have at you with a pair of scissors!"

Disgusted to the point of vomiting, Crash sputtered, "Coco…that's perverted!"

"And you sleep right through it every single time," Coco replied humorously.

"I don't think I want you setting foot in my bedroom again! Sicko!"

Indifferently, Coco brushed her shoulder with a hand and said, "Well, at least it keeps ya lookin' good for Mama."

Covering his pointy ears, Crash desperately pled, "Please…stop talking!"

Coco had a thought. "Speaking of, you know, TALKING, how about we have that talk about your dreams while we wait on Bentley?"

Just then, the communicator in her hand began to buzz. Crash wiped sweat from his forehead and said with relief, "Whew, saved by the turtle!"

Frowning, Coco spoke into the comm. link, "Yeah, Bentley?"

"Okay, if you guys are stuck inside, just go through the vent located somewhere in the garage's ceiling. It should take you back outside. Every garage near this hotel has one."

As Crash shined the flashlight, the bandicoot siblings looked to the ceiling and, sure enough, they spotted a ventilation duct that could fit both their bodies inside. While Coco slapped her forehead in mortification, Crash scratched the back of his neck and asked no one in particular, "Why didn't we see that before?"


	56. Rising Sickness

**Chapter 56: Rising Sickness **

The next morning, Sora watched the sun rise above the mountains. With his legs extended in front of him and his arms supporting him behind, Sora blinked away thoughts of someone controlling his actions. His allies had been keeping a close watch over him during the passing night, which only frustrated the young warrior.

Even though he didn't display any uncommon behavior the night before, Sora didn't get a lot of sleep, so he rose early that morning to watch the sunrise. His friends were still soundly asleep around him, and the precursors above him were taking a siesta. He tried focusing on the task of finding Mavo's lab, but thoughts of Draksin's scary, brooding figure kept creeping in.

Later that morning, after the others had woken themselves up, the heroes decided on taking a much needed break. Their strength was still a bit sapped from running around the mountains for the past few days. Resting his sore feet in the lake, Murray yawned and stretched his arms, scrunching his eyes in the blazing sunlight. He walked around the shallow end of the lake, popping some bones in his spinal column. After another yawn, the water around him suddenly rose up and engulfed his entire body. Flailing his limbs around until he got back to his feet, Murray heatedly shouted, "Oh, come on!"

The culprit of the sudden tidal wave was Donald Duck, who conceitedly waved around his staff wand while standing on the lake's coast, pompously saying, "Now, THAT'S how you do a wind-spell."

Donald and Riku must have been in the middle of instructing Kairi on how to perform magical attacks. The silver-haired boy commended, "Not bad, I'll give ya that one. But how good is your fire—_Dark Firaga!"_

Riku launched a white, flaming ball from his hand. The Firaga tore across the lake's surface, creating V-shaped waves and ripples. Riku brushed his hands together and crossed his arms, a look of satisfaction on his face.

"Good one, Riku!" Kairi commended.

"Uh-huh," Riku replied with a high and mighty smirk.

Sly listened to their pointless chatter with indifference while he did his push-ups. Taking a brief intermission, Sly rubbed his grumbling stomach. "Geeze…you got anymore Fiber Ones on you, Sora?" After receiving no answer, Sly repeated, "Sora? Hey, where is that guy?"

"Probably taking a wiz by those rocks over there," Glennatus answered, pointing over to a faction of big and small boulders further along the coast of the lake. "That's where I last saw him go, anyway."

Over by those rocks, Sora leaned on a tall boulder, remaining aloof from everyone else. Staring at the sparkling lake which reflected the sun's midmorning rays, Sora said to himself, "I don't need anyone to supervise me_._"

While the wind blew, Sora thought he heard a voice tell him, "No you don't."

Sora looked over his shoulder to find no one. With a puzzled expression, Sora looked back to the lake only to jump in fright at the sight of Draksin standing not two feet in front of him.

With a yelp, Sora instinctively made to draw his Ultima Keyblade, but a blinding flash of light prevented him from doing so. After refocusing his eyes, he came to see that Draksin was no longer standing there. Breathing heavily, Sora clutched his head as he heard the Dark One's voice echo, "Why don't we go see what your friends are doing…"

"Go away…" Sora muttered, suddenly taking control of his own mind again.

Sora heard Draksin's voice behind him say, "I'm afraid that's impossible."

Sora whirled around to see no one standing there again. Pivoting around in place, Sora made sure no one was near him. Nervously, Sora yelled, "G-go away!"

Draksin's mental advances seemed to subside a little as his voice began wavering in and out, "If you really wish to rid your mind of me, then come and find me in Dr. Mavo's lab. Tell your friends to just keep searching up along the tallest mountain in that area."

Coming back to reality, Sora slowly turned his head to the left to see Sly Cooper standing behind a small boulder with a bewildered look. "Was that another episode?" Sly asked.

Sora looked away before answering, "Yeah. This time, though, he told me where we can find Mavo's lab."

Sly crossed his arms and stated matter-of-factly, "Well, Sora, either Draksin is turning a new leaf, or this is a standard, B-Class, thoroughly wound up trap."

* * *

"Let me go…" Crunch demanded in a low growl.

"I'm afraid I can't do that until you tell me where Crash Bandicoot is."

"Then you might as well slay me right here and right now 'cuz I ain't sayin' a word," Crunch told Mavo.

Mavo chuckled, staring at the foolish bandicoot hanging upside down and bounded around the torso by chains. The doctor had every light in his lab turned off except for a single bulb that eerily shined over Crunch's dangling body. Mavo replied, "My superior Draksin will arrive here to assist me, and he isn't as pleasant as I."

"Draksin, huh…" Crunch muttered. "Then I guess I ought to break from these chains now or never!"

With a flex and extension of his arms, the chains around the burgundy bandicoot shattered in a shower of metal links. Crunch flipped and landed on his feet, brushing some dirt off his shoulder. Then, he pointed an accusing finger at the unfazed doctor and said, "Bringing me here was a mistake you're about to regret, doc!"

Mavo brought a finger up to press an unseen button on his goggles. Suddenly, little digital words appeared on the lenses of his goggles, detailing Crunch's attributes. As a four digit number ticked on his lenses, the doctor chimed to himself, "Let's see…your current Mojo cap is twenty-fifty. Not bad, bandicoot."

"Thanks, now let's get this show started!" Crunch sprinted across the dark laboratory for Mavo, metal fist at the ready.

Mavo stood calmly with one arm behind his back. With the other, he used his hand to calibrate the sensors on his goggles as the Mojo count steadily raised to twenty one hundred. "Hmph."

"Eat this, sucka!" Crunch exclaimed before throwing his robotic fist.

Mavo caught the fist with his free hand (you know, the one that isn't behind his back) and just as swiftly spun around and swept his leg under both of Crunch's feet, causing the bandicoot to fall flat on his back. Mavo clenched his right fist and black electricity began encircling it; with the force of a sledge-hammer, the scientist slammed his fist down onto Crunch's chest, electrocuting the bandicoot in the process.

"AAAH!" Crunch yelled in agony, desperately trying to remove the doctor's electrified fist from his chest.

Soon, Mavo relinquished his assault and stared at the bandicoot's incapacitated body. "Pitiful. I hope your friends put up more of a fight."

On his back, Crunch coughed and said, "When I get better…I'll kick your carcass to kingdom come!"

"We'll see."

Suddenly, Mavo twitched. Turning around to face away from the dwindling bandicoot, Mavo clutched his forehead in slight strain. "What…why is this happening again?" Bringing both hands to his head, the doctor said, "I thought we had an agreement!"

Crunch looked up to witness the doctor's breakdown. "What in Sam Hill…?"

Mavo shuffled over to a lab table and dropped his elbows down on its surface with his fingers tangled in his black and white hair. He looked up and caught his reflection on one of the glass beakers. However, this reflection didn't mirror the scientist ailing on the lab table. It was the dark and twisted Demon Mavo, smirking his ugly mug back at the scientist. The feral beast spoke to him:

"Your sickness is calling, Lusef," the demon nonchalantly told him. "Pick up."

"Now is not your time…!" Mavo strained.

"Let me have a few minutes with that oversized rat. I'll get him to talk."

Dr. Mavo mumbled, "I'm handling this situation…just fine…"

The demonic reflection scoffed,_ "Please_, you barely injured him! I'll show him torture, his greatest fears!"

"You'll probably just waste him off like the loose animal you are!"

"Oh, Lusef, you truly don't give me the credit I deserve. And now, I'm growing weary of your frequent doubt."

"Now just isn't the time!"

"Then, when?"

Feeling his demon side's frustration begin to take over, Mavo quickly answered, "The bandicoot has some friends Draksin is leading here…I will let you handle them, I promise! They will be yours!"

The feral demon's anger began to subside. "His friends…what are they like, again?"

"Most of them are young and naïve heroes. However, have no doubt that they are strong and skilled in combat, not to mention their fears are free to exploit."

The pain in Mavo's fragile psyche finally halted. "Well now, Lusef, you've finally made a bargain worth waiting for. I can't wait to spill some juvenile blood…"

Regaining his composure, Mavo stood up and whispered, "Uncivilized, yet I find ways to reason with him."

Still in the midst of confusion, Crunch had sat up to witness and hear everything, but he only heard Mavo speaking with himself. Hesitating, Crunch asked, "W-what kinda psycho are you?"

Cracking a few bones in his neck, Mavo looked over at Crunch. The doctor indifferently stated, "Not the kind you'd want exploiting your greatest fears."

"What?" Crunch asked.

"All you need is this." Mavo picked up a fresh syringe with a greenish-yellow liquid inside of it from the nearby lab table. Striding over to Crunch's sitting and frightened body, Mavo brandished the syringe and said slyly, "Oh, and you might start hallucinating."

* * *

Sora led the way up the surprisingly rocky and narrow mountainside. The terrain became so steep that they actually needed to start climbing up. Utilizing the jutting-out stones, the heroes began climbing up the short rock wall.

Since no wall could stop The Murray, he quickly began scaling the rocks with an epic face; the Destiny Islands trio found no difficulty since they were used to climbing all sorts of things back in their home world; Sly Cooper…do I even need to go into detail for him? Since Donald wasn't much of a climber, he got help from Orphco, who held the duck mage by the hand and levitated upward along the rock wall.

During the short climb, Kairi's foot hit a loose rock and she nearly lost her footing. Right above her, Sora looked down and outstretched his hand, offering assistance. Kairi reached up to take it, but stopped mid-reach to see Sora's eyes now yellow.

"Sora?" Kairi asked hesitantly, even getting Riku's attention.

For no distinct reason and shortly after giving Kairi a wildly confused look, Sora let go of his position on the wall and began plummeting downward.

"SORA!" both Kairi and Riku screamed.

Just before Sora met the ground, Gladdus swooped in and caught him under the arms. This caught the others' attention, each hero and precursor stopping mid-climb or mid-flight to check out what just happened.

On the wall, Sly asked, "Mind telling me why Sora just took a dive?"

Gladdus looked down at the boy she was holding with a fearful expression. "Sora? Explanation?"

Sora's eyes returned blue. "Huh…wasn't I just on the wall? Why are you holding me?"

Angrily, Gladdus spat, "Hey! I just saved your life, kid! Or least from a really bad spinal injury!"

"Draksin…" Riku muttered. Yet another idea popping into his head (he's been having a lot of those, huh?), Riku asked, "Kairi, did Sora look different just now?"

Particularly remembering the strange sight of his yellow eyes, Kairi answered, "Yeah, his eyes were—"

"—Yellow?"

"Yeah!"

"Everyone, hurry up and get to the top! I have to tell you guys something!"

Once every climber or flying precursor reached the flat lands up top, Riku informed everyone, "Guys, the last time Sora's eyes were yellow was when he started walking into the campfire! And now this time when he let go of the wall. If my deducing skills are as sharp as I think they are, then I'd say that whenever Sora's being controlled to the point of his own eyes changing color, then—hold on, is anyone even following what I'm saying?"

Sora stated uneasily, "Not really…"

Sly shook his head. "Not even close."

Glennatus said, "You even lost me."

Orphco cut in, responding to Glen's statement, "That's actually believable. Go on Riku, I understand you."

"Okay, well, we all know that Sora's being frequently controlled by Draksin, right? The first time this ever happened was when Sora nearly walked into the campfire before I saved him. I saw that his eyes were yellow. It seems that only when Sora is about to commit a suicidal act is when his eyes change color. Walking into a fire, jumping off a rock wall—and Sora seems to not have any memory of it whatsoever!"

"Oh, I get what you're saying now," Kairi announced, snapping her fingers. "It's almost as if Draksin is pulling out all the stops to completely control Sora's mind, so he needs to make sure Sora isn't in control at all!"

Riku replied, "And when he does that, he can pretty much make Sora commit any dark act he wants—maybe."

Now in an A-B conversation, Kairi concluded, "So if that's true, then we should always watch Sora's eyes."

Still in a state of bewilderment, Sora was about to cut in until he heard the Dark One's voice in his head say, "Your friends are quite sharp."

Sora only frowned, not responding, so Draksin continued, "You should add that when your eyes are yellow like mine, you and I become one in the same."

Still not receiving a response, Draksin chuckled and said, "Short of words today, are we? No matter. We will meet soon enough. Tell your friends that they're off-course. You all need to keep traveling opposite the sun's direction."

"Opposite the sun's direction…" Sora repeated lowly.

"What was that?" Donald asked, being the one standing closest to Sora.

Projecting his voice, Sora declared, "Guys, Draksin just told me we're off-course."

Concerned, Orphco asked, "Did he say anything else?"

"No," Sora emotionlessly replied. Sora pointed and said, "Just to keep moving in that direction."

Truly worried about Sora's wellbeing, Kairi asked, "Are you okay?"

"Just a little bothered by what's been happening," Sora truthfully answered. "Let's go…"


	57. Super Sonic

**Chapter 57: Super Sonic  
**

Nighttime was approaching, and it was the day before the big Grand Prix. As the sun sunk far below the horizon, a dark purple glow reflected over the luxurious hotel the racers were staying in. Outside the hotel, eight garages were lined up, one belonging to each of the competitors.

On the far end of the line of garages was Rade Hedge's team's garage. The blue hedgehog, red echidna, and orange fox were just putting the finishing touches on their airship, _Feisar_. The fox known as Tails but undercover as "Terrick" wiped sweat from his head and stated, "Alright, that should do it! The _Feisar_ is primed and ready for anything tomorrow."

The red echidna known as Knuckles but undercover as…hmm, I haven't given him a fake name yet, so "Kenneth" should do it. "Kenneth" yawned and said with a wrench in his hand, "Good. Now we should probably rest up. Somethin' tells me tomorrow's gonna be a hectic day."

"You guys go on back to the hotel," Sonic said. "I'm gonna lock everything up."

"Alright, later Rade!" Tails waved off before leading himself and Knuckles out the garage's exit.

Yawning and stretching, Sonic secured the _Feisar's _cockpit and windows and placed the linen cover over the vehicle. Next, he picked up the soda can of Big Blue from the work bench and slowly drank out of it. As he quenched that thirst of his, he couldn't help but think about the dream he had the night before. That dream seemed much clearer and less vague than his usual nightmares, but it was still a nightmare nonetheless.

Lately, he had always been dreaming of a mysterious black-haired girl with green eyes. This was his vague and eerie dream. Every time Sonic looked into those green eyes, he heard the sounds of pain all around him. Black shadows in the peripherals of his vision would suddenly drop dead and dissolve. The next thing he knew, he was standing alone with the girl, and she lunged at him with an ear-piercing screech. Then he'd wake up in a cold sweat.

However, the night before, Sonic dreamed of something much more disturbing. It started with him sitting with his back against a wall. He'd look up to find a female blue hedgehog with green eyes staring at him with a frightened expression. She would start crying, mouthing the words "stay here."

Sonic remembered he'd start to protest, but he hushed himself when the female hedgehog embraced him. He started crying too.

Suddenly, there was an explosion in the background from a tall building. The female hedgehog let out a soundless scream as something from the side of Sonic's vision latched onto the woman's foot and dragged her away. Then, when Sonic was sure he was crying himself awake, he uttered one word as he came back to reality: "Mom…"

Sonic put down the Big Blue drink. He couldn't get over how real and clear the dream was. From the explosion in the background to how beautiful his mother's blue, straightened hair was, everything seemed absolutely lucid.

Sonic looked out the door Tails and Knuckles had left open for him. It was almost completely dark out. Sighing, Sonic shrugged and casually said himself, "Well, I'd better get…"

The hedgehog didn't finish his sentence because the sound of arguing voices outside interrupted him. Sonic quickly turned out the garage's lights and slunk against the wall adjacent to the door. Eavesdropping, Sonic heard a somewhat nervous voice say to another, "Well maybe if you didn't spend thirty minutes brushing your hair, we would've had this done for Bentley already!"

"I wouldn't have had to take thirty minutes if you didn't decide to crack confetti over my head!" replied an annoyed girl's voice. "Where the heck did you even get confetti?"

"You ever been in Goofy's laundry? He's got a bunch of it in his pants pockets for some reason."

"Whatever—look! Another garage door is wide open!"

Sonic wedged himself between the wall and the space behind the door as quietly as he could. He heard the girl say, "Crash, go check it out. Make sure no one's in there!"

The other voice replied, "Got it!"

Sonic heard footsteps enter the dark garage. Shortly after hearing them, Sonic slammed the door closed, closing the intruder off from his accomplice. The hedgehog yelled, "Got you!"

Crash gasped, turned around to face Sonic, and threw up his hands. "I can sort of explain!"

On the outside, Coco clasped a hand over her mouth to keep herself from screaming out loud. She quickly leapt over to the garage's door and tried forcing it open, but it was locked shut. Shortly before turning around and sprinting all the way back to the hotel, Coco swore, "Ah, fudge!"

Back in the garage, Crash was staring into the intimidating eyes of Rade Hedge. Trying to make conversation, Crash said, "…So how about them Cowboys?"

"What are you and your friend doing sneaking into other people's garages?" Sonic antagonistically accused.

"Just sight seeing, ya know. We love lookin' at those quantum trackers, fluxor-coils, mid-powered sparkers, and all that jazz…"

Sonic ignored the bandicoot's comments. "If you asked me, I'd say you were trying to cheat in the competition! And put your hands down!"

Crash did as he was told, thankful to do so because his arms were getting weary from hanging in the air. "Okay, so maybe we were trying to cheat just a little bit…"

"What were you planning on doing, sabotaging my car?"

"No, just to take pictures of all your ship's specs, that's it." Crash scratched his head. "Boy, you really sound like you want to win tomorrow. What was your wish again?"

Not willing to change the subject, Sonic retorted, "None of your business! Get out of my garage right now!"

"Actually…" Crash coolly said, pulling the camera from his pocket, "…I can't leave without those specky-things, so I'm afraid I'm gonna be here a bit longer."

"Wise guy, eh?" Sonic said, cocking his head to the side.

Crash pocketed the camera again and put up his fists, ready to start the fight. Sonic scoffed and charged at a moderate speed towards Crash, who did the same.

The two combatants locked hands and began pushing at each other. Crash tried twisting his and Sonic's wrists in uncomfortable positions, hoping to debilitate the latter. Under the pressure, Sonic decided to tighten his gloved hands around Crash's furry ones, and he jumped both feet off the ground and planted them in Crash's chest.

"Whoa!" Crash yelped as he let go. Suddenly, he felt his entire head snap upward. He had just been delivered a lethal uppercut to the jaw, courtesy of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Next, a big red shoe was planted into Crash's abdomen, sending him to the floor. Sonic taunted, "How d'ya like that?"

Crash did some sort of spin-reprisal on the floor that led him back on his feet again. Crash charged again and actually landed a punch across Sonic's face, and then another one with the opposite fist. Crash then followed up with a knee attack to Sonic's abdomen, but that was foiled when he realized his knee had been blocked by the hedgehog's right hand.

With the left hand, Sonic socked Crash in the face, sending him reeling backward. Crash panted with a hopeless grin, "Wow…I'm losing."

"You got that right…" Sonic agreed, panting as well.

"That mission of mine obviously isn't happening," Crash concluded. "Unless I plan on doing this all night."

Sonic laughed, "You're not so bad, Chris was it?"

"Actually, it's Crash Bandicoot," Crash corrected. "I'm undercover, and I gotta feeling you are, too."

Sonic grinned. "That's pretty perceptive of you. Yeah, my name's not Rade. I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog."

"Pleased to meet you. You know, I wanna try to fight you again in the future. Were you giving it your all just now?"

Sonic pompously crossed his arms and said, "Far from it, my friend. I'm actually capable of something much more powerful…"

"Let's see it!" Crash requested.

"Alright, don't say I didn't warn ya."

Sonic took on a power-up stance, and everything metal inside the garage began to clang around from the vibrations reverberating from the hedgehog. He began levitating in the air, deeply intriguing Crash. Suddenly, seven crystals of various colors appeared around Sonic's body, orbiting him numerous times. Crash could hardly believe his eyes as Sonic's blue fur began to turn golden yellow and his spiky hair stood up.

With golf balls for eyes, Crash gaped at Sonic's new glowing form. "Looks like everyone's stealing themes from Lizard Ball Z."

In the blink of an eye, Sonic was no longer floating above Crash. The confused bandicoot looked around and nearly jumped from his skin when he became confronted with Super Sonic floating two feet from the ground behind him.

"That's creepy."

"Comes with the form," Sonic replied with a grin. Powering down to his normal blue state again, Sonic dismissed himself, "Anyway, I've got to go, and so do you. Catch me on the tracks tomorrow, okay?"

After unlocking the garage's door, Sonic ushered Crash out and briskly jogged back in the hotel's direction. Watching the hedgehog disappear in the distance, the bandicoot dryly commented to himself, "Too bad I'm not driving…" With a look of sudden realization, Crash snapped his fingers and exclaimed, "Crud, I forgot to ask him why he doesn't wear any pants!"


	58. The Night Before

_Yeah, I know it's beyond late to say this. But no-homo for Chapter 35. I had to get inside the peeling mind of a fifteen year old girl, plus I forgot to mention "No-Homo" in my author's notes. I'm straight. And a dude._

_And with that, this chapter has some sexual references. Okay, more than I usually write._

**Chapter 58: The Night Before **

Sora could feel his nearness. It didn't matter that he kept projecting his tainted voice in Sora's head repeatedly; Sora knew he was close to Draksin.

With a feeling of both fear and worry mixed with frustration and paranoia, Sora lay awake under the stars of the late night with his arms folded under his head. He and the other heroes had camped out on a flat and grassy patch along the mountain. Judging from Draksin's frequent mental messages notifying the boy about the heroes' position (and Sora's strong premonition), Sora could tell that he was definitely near the Dark One.

Sora heard rustling in the grass behind. He peered up to spot an upside down girl striding over to him. Sora said, "You're still up?"

Sitting down next to the laying boy, Kairi replied, "You are, too."

"Not really tired. What's up with you?"

"Too cold and uncomfortable to sleep soundly."

"Oh." With an embarrassed look, Sora apologized, "Hey, I'm sorry about all the weird stuff I did…and have been doing."

"It's not your fault," Kairi forgave. "And I've gotten over it."

"Good."

She lay down next to Sora and rested her head on his shoulder. After receiving an alarmed look from the Keyblader, Kairi explained, "I'm just trying to get warmer, you 'fraidy-cat…"

"I'm not afraid…just a little surprised." Sora actually astonished himself when he found himself able to control his breathing rate the moment Kairi decided to also place her hand on his chest. The fact that he wasn't hyperventilating obviously meant he had a lot more on his mind. In fact, something told him that Draksin was watching him even now as he and Kairi were alone. Although fears of Draksin making the boy do something psychotic plagued his thoughts, he didn't quite care about any of that at the moment.

Sora looked down to see Kairi's eyes were closed. Maybe now was a good time to make a smooth, Daxter-approved move. Slowly, he loosened an arm from underneath his head, making sure that it was the arm closest to the resting girl laying on him. Then, he eased his hand out from under his spiky head and let it glide through the air until it reached a one-inch space away from Kairi's back. What was he, a pansy? No way, so he let his hand glide further down without touching her, of course. Okay, maybe that was a little too far down. He brought it back up to her hip and lightly rested it down like a feather.

Mission completed. Achievement unlocked. Trophy earned.

Kairi calmly smiled as she could tell Sora had just used a lot of strategy and planning for the goal he just achieved. At least it was step forward for him. He normally didn't openly show this much affection, which was a slight problem for her. Kairi would normally have to make up some kind of condition she was in to get Sora to make a move—like faking being cold, for example. But she definitely had been uncomfortable laying on the ground earlier.

Sora had his eyes closed for awhile now. At the worst possible time, that villain's voice resonated in his head:

"All too easy…"

Sora frowned. He thought, _Please, not now…_

"Why not now? I could probably even help you out with a few things…"

_Please…just go away._

"Heh, heh, heh…I know you want her. I've dwelled inside your mind. Sometimes, she's all you ever think about." Draksin's voice took a dark turn, "It would be so simple. Don't you…?"

_I said GO AWAY!_

Sora heard more laughing. Then, the Dark One said, "Calm thyself, young one. We will meet later, and then you may take out your grievances."

To Sora's relief, Draksin's voice faded away from Sora's mind. Kairi noticed how tense Sora had gotten. Listening to Sora's speedy heartbeat, she asked, "Are you nervous or something?"

"No, I just…actually, a little, yeah. But I'm okay now." Sora breathed easily. His heart rested peacefully underneath the girl's head. With one arm around the girl, he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Arden pushed open the twin doors to her wide and luxurious bedroom, where Link's twitchy body awaited her on the bed. Link was sitting with his legs extended in front of him and his back against a purple pillow. He had an intensely disoriented look upon his face, but when Calypso walked in with her silk night gown (that dangerously cut low), Link turned to her and gave a forced smile.

"You look beautiful in that," Link strained.

"Oh, this old thing? You're so darling, Link," Arden thanked eagerly. She strolled over to the bed with a tender look on her face. Suggestively crawling on the bed toward link, she asked, "How've ya been?"

"I've…been—"

"Really? Great!" Still making her way to the mind-controlled Hylian, Calypso softly commanded, "Tell me how much you love me."

"More, er, than I've ever loved any other woman in my life," Link twitchily replied back.

Reaching her destination, Calypso placed a finger on Link's nose and sensually said, "Guess what I'm about to do to you…"

Slightly breaking from his mind-control, Link responded in a strained voice, "I've no idea. What are you about to _put me through?"_

"Well, I thought we could…" Arden trailed off, on account of the distracting odor coming from Link's tunic. She sniffed and commented, "My word, you smell like a combination of anger, fatigue, and flop sweat." Dragging her finger down to his chest, she lowly whispered, "Somebody needs a good bathing…"

Through gritted teeth, Link replied tensely, "Thank you, I, er…agree."

Before Arden could do anything obscene to the warrior, a Wipeout guard emerged into the room, looking scared. "Um, Miss Calypso?"

Annoyed by the guard's barging in, Calypso asked impatiently, "Yes, yes, what is it?"

"There's a—uh—Mister Mefisto in your office looking for you! He said not to keep him waiting!"

Rolling her green eyes, she asked, "What could he possibly want?"

"I don't know, ma'am," the frightened guard admitted. "But I've got a feeling I shouldn't keep this guy waiting!"

Reluctantly, Arden slid away from Link and off the bed, following the messenger out the door. Walking down the hallway, the sorceress soon started wishing she had brought some extra garments. Draksin wasn't the timid type.

Reaching her office, which was another spacious, purple-colored room, Arden pushed open the doors and, sure enough, found the Dark Maker himself sitting on the edge of her work desk. The guard who had escorted her quickly bid adieu and zipped out of there.

"Well look at you," Draksin began, smirking at the sorceress' apparel. "What's the occasion?"

"You know, big competition tomorrow, and I've got Link waiting in the bedroom, so please make this quick," Calypso informed, trying to sound casual.

"Someone's been busy," Draksin commented, still giving her a smirk.

"Yes. Is this it?"

"No I'm actually here to get a bite to eat. You got any chop suey or chicken soup?"

Arden negatively replied, "No. Now why are you really here?"

Draksin rolled his acid-yellow eyes and stood up from the desk. "I'm just here to wish you luck on the Grand Prix tomorrow. I know you've been looking forward to it."

Changing her attitude slightly, Calypso relented, "Oh. Thanks."

"No problem. But seriously, why don't I see you in that dress more often?"

Sighing, Calypso insulted, "You're a broken record."

Draksin retorted, "And you're a prima donna."

"Ooh, haven't heard that one before," Calypso sarcastically remarked. "Are you done here?"

Sighing as well, Draksin rolled his eyes to the ceiling and began approaching Arden with slow steps. As he did so, he told her, "You know something, Arden? You've always been the self-righteous attention-hog of the group. You're not humble like Lusef. Definitely not quiet like Biff. And don't get me started on how you're not…well, Reiden was next in line behind you, but you understand that you're now the most insubordinate member."

Walking up so close to Arden that she leaned back against the wall in intimidation, Draksin cast a tall and brooding shadow over her. With half closed eyes, Draksin enigmatically asked, "Why is that."

Averting her gaze from the Dark One, Calypso tried to sound indifferent as she responded, "I guess we all have our places."

"Even places need boundaries."

Gaining a grain of confidence, Calypso smirked up at Draksin. "What, you gonna punish me?"

Suddenly, that confidence went down the drain when Draksin slammed his hand against the spot on the wall next to the sorceress' head. In a harsh tone, Draksin ruthlessly threatened, "Don't force my hand."

By now, fear was present on Arden's face. As Draksin received silence from her, he put on a sour smile and bade her, "Now you have a good night."

He turned around and disappeared in a black cloud of mist, leaving the sorceress by her lonesome. After the dark being had departed with a few echoing laughs, Arden let out petrified breaths. Her fear turned into frustration as she charged two Mojo Blasts in her trembling hands.

"Curse that man…" Calypso swore under her breath.

Right then and there, she raised her hands to the desk Draksin had been previously sitting on and blasted the charges of Mojo at it, completely taking out the adjacent wall with a gaping, smoking hole. A view of London's clock tower could be seen through.

Dusting off her shoulder, Arden angrily muttered, "Somebody better fix that damn hole." Whether or not that "hole" she was talking about was the wall she partly destroyed or Draksin remained to be seen.

* * *

Crash sat up in the bed of his hotel room, loosely holding the remote to his television. The channel was on Nicktoons, and he was currently watching Lizard Ball Z. Crash's heavy eyelids drooped down every now and then, indicating he needed sleep badly.

The TV show went to a commercial break, somewhat perking the bandicoot up. Crash yawned and said before drifting off to sleep, "This show needs more ninjas…"

_Crash's dream…_

(Be prepared: this one's long.) He stood in the center of some dusty old western town, idly watching a tumbleweed blow by. The skies were a dark shade of orange.

Standing with his cowboy hat, Crash intensely looked up at the nearby saloons' rooftops. Visible black figures were standing on top, peering down at Crash with bloodthirsty looks in their eyes. Crash only uttered one thing to himself.

"Ninjas. _Dam_…age."

Suddenly, the black figures leapt down from the rooftops and engulfed Crash's unfazed body. After seeing only darkness for awhile, Crash realized it was dark because he had his face buried in the side of someone's leg. This someone was rather tall and had a soft hand cradling the back of Crash's head.

In actuality, Crash was hugging a standing person's leg, trying to conceal his face away from the world. For some reason, Crash felt really insecure.

Crash drew his face from the person's comforting thigh and looked up into the female bandicoot's face. She had orange fur and red hair, just like him. Her hair was short and fell a little past her jawbone.

Crash whimpered a little, feeling the certain anxiety that this woman was about to leave him. However, the woman only warmly smiled back and said, "Go on and make some friends. I'll be back."

"How long will you be?" Crash asked.

"It depends on how long it takes for your dad to get back from Planet Faln." The woman ruffled the little bandicoot's hair and smiled. Looking to the other kids playing in the public daycare center, the anthro-woman commented, "Look, Prince Nathan is here! Why don't you go try to make friends with him?"

Still clutching his mother's leg, Crash turned around to observe the lion boy Nathan playing a game of what looked like soccer with some other anthro-animal children. Crash couldn't hold back a grin, as that was his favorite sport to play. "Alright, mom."

Detaching herself from Crash, she said goodbye and walked in the opposite direction. The little bandicoot stood and looked around the outdoor daycare center. It looked like an oversized gazebo with little garlands of flowers hanging around different locations of the ceiling. The gazebo's railing kept the children safe inside it. Speaking of the children, they all were wearing simple, grayish clothing, even the prince Crash's mother had pointed out.

Crash took a step toward the childish game of soccer going on in the other side of the spacious daycare center. He held up a hand to his eyebrow to block the bright sun's rays as he timidly walked forward. Suddenly, a blue hedgehog kid ran up to Crash and tagged his shoulder.

"Huh?" Crash said, confused by the child's antics.

"Tag! You're it!" the blue hedgehog replied. "You're supposed to chase me!"

"Oh," Crash responded in recognition with a smile. Crash got into a running position, but by that time, the hedgehog had already darted across the gazebo. Still in his running position with a comical look, Crash said, "Maybe playing tag with a hedgehog is a bad idea…"

Laughing, the hedgehog sped back to Crash and said, "You look funny!"

"And you're really fast!"

"Well, you know what they say about us hedgehogs. My name's Rahdel. You must be a bandicoot, right?"

"Yeah, I'm…" For some reason, part of Crash's dream started fluctuating. He failed to hear himself saying his own name, but the conversation continued when the dream came back, "Do you want to go play with the prince and his friends?"

"Sure, but they're kind of rough," Rahdel answered uneasily.

"I can take 'em!" Crash confidently replied.

The bandicoot and hedgehog walked through the daycare center until they reached the edge of where the soccer game was going on. The ball the kids were kicking around looked like it was made of some kind of gray animal skin, but obviously not a mammal's skin because that would be…messed up to their kind.

Rahdel called, "Hey, Prince Nathan! Can we wanna play?"

Nathan stopped driving the ball for a second to say, "Buzz off!"

Rahdel tried again, "C'mon, let us play!"

Nathan stopped playing, picked up the ball and said, "Fine. YOU can play, but the bandicoot can't."

Giving Nathan an offended look, Crash spoke up, "Hey, I wanna play, too!"

"Go away, loser!" Nathan yelled. "I saw you hugging your mommy!"

Crash looked down and scratched his head in embarrassment. Rahdel stood up for Crash, "Leave 'em be. You know, he's really good at playing trackball! He could probably kick your butt!"

Crash gave the hedgehog vouching for him an unsure look, but Rahdel only grinned in response. However, Nathan sneered and threw the ball to Crash. He challenged, "Alright, if you can kick the ball into the goal from over there, I'll let ya play."

Crash walked the ball to the requested spot a few yards away from the makeshift goal, which was a straw-weaved basket turned on its side. Setting the ball down, Crash got ready to kick, only to have a small rock thrown at his skull. Grabbing his nose on pain, Crash felt his eyes water. Angrily, he looked to Nathan and his friends, who were enjoying a good laugh.

Rahdel, however, was not. "That wasn't funny, Nathan!"

Crash smirked at an idea that just popped into his head. He got back into a kicking position and threw his foot into the ball, this time not aiming for the goal. He had aimed for Nathan's head, and swiftly achieved his target.

Getting hit square in the nose, Nathan reeled back his head in shock and screamed, "OW!"

The lion prince's friends only stood there, confused at what to do next. They weren't the only ones confused; Crash also had a puzzled look, himself.

Nathan recovered and furiously shouted, "I'm gonna kill you!"

Rahdel yelled, "Jayzev, RUN!"

Crash did just that; he leapt over the gazebo's banister and darted off for the little sandy village's market, Nathan and his friends in hot pursuit.

* * *

_Alright, people, I'm at a dilemma. It's about the racing competition. I'm getting exhausted from it, truly. Part of me wants to stick through it and hold on, but a huge chunk of me really wants to move on to other stuff. If you haven't already noticed, I've started a poll, of which I need people to submit votes to so I may update this story again._

_The questions are:_

_Should I keep going with this whack-a-doo idea of having three more big races take place on the day of the Grand Prix…?_

_Or…_

_Should I convert to this new idea I'm having of just shaving it down to one single race that determines it all, so I can sooner kill off Calypso and Mavo and release **Uka Uka Reborn** already?_

_Right, so this is actually something where I NEED your feedback, as much as I don't want it (just kidding!)._


	59. The Grand Prix

_It's not every day that you find some awesome stories on this website, but when you do—_

_Kanye West: —And I'ma let you finish, but I just wanted to say that __**Smarty and the Geek**__ have the best cross-over fic ever made!_

…_Yeah, thanks, I was actually in the middle of telling people that. Anyway, you can blame these two authors who collaborate as one to make the fic, __**Trial of the Heroes**__, for me not updating this story frequently. Check it out when I'm not updating, or when I am updating. Either way, if ya like Jak, Crash, and Spyro, then you'll enjoy that epic fic. Which is finished by now, by the way._

_Now, on to my story. There are plenty of pictures of these WipEout vehicles on the web if you're not familiar with the WipEout games or just can't remember them. Just google 'em if you feel it's necessary._

**Chapter 59: The Grand Prix**

"Welcome sports fans across the globe," sports commentator Chick Gizzard Lips welcomed, holding a microphone in his hand as he stood at the starting line of the Twisted Wipeout Grand Prix. The chicken man announced, "This is the Grand Prix of the Twisted Wipeout competition coming at ya in full HDTV! Our eight racers are fully prepared for the carnage, the high speed destruction, and the heartbreaking gas prices for today's fateful race."

Chick walked over to the first racer lined up at the starting line. It was Speed Racer, leaning against his suped-up _Mach 5000_. It was a white hovercraft with a sleek design; it had the classic three prongs in the front with the red letter "M" painted on the hood and the number five painted on the sides.

Chick greeted, "Today our lineup of racers starts with Speed Racer, world renowned speed-addict. Tell me Mr. Racer—"

"Call me Speed!"

"Okay, Speed, how do you plan to win today's Grand Prix?"

"The same way I always plan to win championships!" Speed replied. Giving the thumbs up to a floating camera, he continued, "Drive to the best of my ability and inevitably school everyone on the track! _Ha-ha!"_

"Now I understand that you have your own pit crew. Who is in it?"

Speed replied, "My Pops, my little brother Spritle, his pet monkey Chim Chim, and my girlfriend, Trixie!"

"That's fantastic—so what will you wish for if you do school everyone on the track?"

"When I win the race, I'm gonna wish for a super racetrack that extends across the entire world's equator! It'll be the ultimate racetrack to school all of my rivals on!"

"Well good luck to you in your race!" Chick moved on to the next racer, who was the hedgehog known as Rade Hedge. "Hello, Mister Rade, it's a great day to race, isn't it?"

"I guess you could say that," Sonic answered with swagger in his tone.

"Well, Rade, I understand you're doing this for psychological help, am I right?"

"Yeah, so far, no therapist has been able to cure it. Their only answer would be to go to where my nightmares take place, so I'm gonna wish for that."

"I certainly hope you solve your nightmarish mystery! Now, what's going on with your pit crew?"

"Oh, them? Well, they're just my best friends—Terrick, Ally, Cristina, Cheddar, Syfer, and Bianca. Oh yeah, and Kenneth, too." (In order, that's Tails, Amy, Cream, Cheese, Silver, Blaze, and Knuckles.)

"Well, that's certainly a surefire way to win a competition—with your friends here to back you up!" Chick moved on to the next contestant, Gerardo Lopez.

Chick greeted, "Well if it isn't the Ragin' Haitian himself, Gerardo!"

Gerardo looked up from wiping down the hood of his _Icaras_ hovercraft with an offended look. "Haitian? I'm Dominican, you _idioso!"_

"Oh, right. Now, Mr. Lopez, your brother has been falsely convicted of capital murder, and you're in this race to wish him out of prison, correct?"

"Yes, and my family hasn't been the same since he got locked up. I'm doing this for you, Antonio!"

"Very heartfelt. I hope we'll see those taxicab driving skills go to work during today's Grand Prix race."

"Yep, and these interns in my pit crew better not screw up my chances of winning!" Gerardo said with an annoyed look. "Seriously, who hired those guys?"

"Not sure, I think they were kidnapped."

Leaving Gerardo with a baffled look, Chick Gizzard Lips moved on to the next one, Captain Falcon, who stood tall next to his Blue Falcon. Chick asked the racing hero in blue, "So, Captain Falcon, I understand you come from the future, correct?"

Captain Falcon sternly replied, "Actually, Chick, that's supposed to be classified information, next question please."

"Um…okay, then," Chick staggered. "Do ya mind telling us why you're in this competition? Or is that classified as well?"

"I'm in here for the pure sport, that's all."

Chick asked, "Are you even planning on making a wish?"

"Probably."

"Do you even want to make a wish?"

"No, Chick, I don't. Calypso will understand, I'm sure."

"Right, well…why don't you tell us about you're pit crew?"

Captain Falcon looked directly into a floating camera and said, "A true racer doesn't need a crew, especially not with the Blue Falcon guiding him."

"Well, you are definitely a trooper, Captain Falcon. I hope to see your moves in the race!"

Chick walked over to Shingo Miyami, who was still for some reason surrounded by his fangirls, all sitting on various locations of his _Auricom_. The Japanese man had both arms around two ladies as he greeted the sports reporter, "Sup, pung yo!"

"And a cock-a-doodle-do to you too, Mr. Miyami. You look positively at ease for today's Grand Prix!"

"Oh yeah, it's no big deal. I'm kinda just waiting to get things over with so I can take my loot home, ya know?"

"I see. What exactly are you going to wish for?"

Shingo began listing, "Well, I want more cars, more clothes, ownership of all the body shops in Tokyo, a driver's license for my twelve-year-old cousin, diamond jewelry for my all ladies here, that new game Forza Turismo, a new spoiler for my formula-one car, a soda machine for my bathroom, and a life-sized Godzilla action figure."

Looking quite perplexed, Chick said, "You know you can only wish for ONE of those things, right?"

"Then I guess I'll just wish for a boat-load of money!"

"A boat-load of money, folks," Chick repeated with reverence. "Now, who in your pit crew will help you achieve this goal?"

"Not many people. Just my friends, my body shop workers, my ex-girlfriends, and my Mom and Pop."

"Very interesting, and good luck to you, Shingo!" Chick walked to the sixth racer lined up at the starting line and greeted him, "Hello, Mr. David Hughes!"

David seemed to be in another world. Standing next to his airship, the _Harimau_, he just stared out at the long racetrack that stretched and turned before him. He had made it so far into the competition. And now, he was about to drive on the very track that killed his wife ten days ago.

"Er, Mr. Hughes?" Chick tried again, this time, breaking David out of his trance.

"Yes?" David replied impassively.

"I was just about to ask you how you feel about today's race."

David retorted, "I really have nothing 'high-spirited' to tell you, so you may as well interview the next racer. Now."

Chick nodded, "I understand. You're in a very stressful situation, so we'll cover you later." Chick meandered to the second to the last racer, Minerva Mink, who leaned against her _Piranha_. He greeted her, "If it isn't the speedy vixen Miss Mink! Tell us, are you prepared for the grueling race that lies ahead of you?"

"Oh, Chick, I'm always prepared, primed, and ready!" Min answered confidently.

Chick quickly mumbled under his breath, "No kind of reference there—so what wish will you be making if you win the Grand Prix?"

"I'm going to wish for my own reality TV show, of course. What better way to make myself more public than to go on television and subject my everyday life to the world?"

"I guess there is none, Miss Mink. Tell us, who will be handling your ride at pit stops?"

Min flipped her blonde hair before answering, "Just a few head-over-heels interns. Oh, they're so cute when they adore me!"

"Yes, I imagine so. Good luck to you on your race!" Chick walked over to the last racer and greeted him, "Hello, how are you doing today, Mar?"

Jak was leaning back on the wing of his airship, the _Assegai,_ with his arms crossed. Jak plainly answered, "Great."

"Now, I understand you're a man of a few words…?"

"That's right."

Chick tried, "Well, would ya like to tell us about your hefty pit crew?"

"No," Jak responded.

"I see. And I guess asking about your wish is also out of the question?"

"That's right," Jak said again.

Preparing to walk back to his studio, Chick replied, "Well, good luck to you nonetheless, you sadistically enigmatic son of a gun."

While Chick was already walking back, a short ottsel suddenly burst on the scene, screaming, "Okay, I'm ready for the interview now!"

Back in the Wipeout Studio, the other chicken sportscaster, Stew, was wearing an afro wig and standing in front of a green screen. Stew said, "Thank you Chick for those candid interviews! Now in case there are those still wondering how the Grand Prix is gonna work, wonder no longer, my friends!"

The camera zoomed in on a portion of the green screen, which displayed a map of Europe. Stew touched a spot on the United Kingdom and said, "Alright, so we're here, in London, England for the first race on the track called Ninth Heaven. As you've come to expect, this track will consist of high speed racing and weapons of medial destruction!"

A miniature 3-D version of the Ninth Heaven track appeared on the screen and began slowly spinning around in place. Stew added, "The Ninth Heaven track will be a fifteen lap run, so our racers have their work cut out for them. Whoever wins this race will earn one free wish from the sorceress and founder of this competition, Arden Calypso!"

Now sitting at a desk in a separate studio, Chick Gizzard Lips relayed, "Thank you, Stew, for that accurate rundown of how things are going to transpire today. And in a few minutes, Arden Calypso will start the Twisted Wipeout Grand Prix."

* * *

With a stern expression, Calypso strolled through the hall of her little luxurious dwelling she had been keeping herself and Link within. Wearing the same green dress Draksin had given her, she quietly headed for the little penthouse's elevator with the brainwashed Link following closely behind her.

As they reached the front of a closed elevator door, it suddenly opened with a "ding" sound and revealed the same four Wipeout Co. bodyguards that Link had previously owned two nights ago. One of them, with a band-aid over his nose, told Calypso, "Madam, we are ready to escort you to the race!"

"You four clowns aren't needed anymore," was the sorceress' reply. "I have Link. He'll take care of me."

"What?" the guard replied, sharing the same offended expression as his friends. "This guy can't guard you all by himself!"

"He sure could drop all four of you by himself," Calypso recalled. "I'm in a foul mood right now, so you idiots should just move aside lest I take out my anger on you."

Grudgingly, the guards stepped out of Calypso's and Link's way. The pair entered the elevator and let the doors close behind them, leaving the useless Wipeout employees behind. As the elevator began moving downward, Link's body began twitching again. He seemed to have a strained expression, as if there was something fighting inside of him.

Calypso turned around and observed his unusual behavior. "Hm…the hero wants to be free again, does he?"

Link only twitched and grunted in response.

"I think that hero needs to be stifled," said Calypso. Her eyes glowed green again as she stared into Link's unstable blue ones, which only grew fiercer. "You love me, don't you?"

Suddenly, Link's left hand clutched Arden's right arm in a quick movement. Taken aback by this, Calypso commented, "Hm, it seems you're developing a resistance to me."

Link's grip around her arm tightened.

This didn't seem to faze the sorceress much. She calmly glanced down at her captive arm and then back to Link. She casually stated, "We can't have that, now can we? I guess this means it's time to take it up a notch."

With her left hand, she held it up to the Hylian's face and leaned upward to plant a kiss on his quivering mouth. Instantly, Link's body became less tense. His fierce and edgy expression also seemed to loosen into a calm and dutiful look.

"That's better," Calypso said. "I haven't had to use this much power over anyone in a long time." The elevator began to slow down to a halt as it reached the bottom floor. "This is where we get off, darling."


	60. Ninth Heaven

_You know the psycho who shot all those people at a Tuscon not too long ago? Well, I saw on the news a portion of a video of him burning the American flag. In the background of that video, he played the song Bodies, by Drowning Pool. The reason why I'm bringing all this up is because Bodies is Draksin's theme song. I hope no one is too disturbed by this, because I had thought of this song for him a long time ago, mainly because Draksin kills a bunch of people in this story. To balance this sensitive subject out, I will most likely give Draksin a second theme song. (Psychosocial by Slipknot doesn't sound much better, does it?)_

**Chapter 60: Ninth Heaven**

"Don't forget your promise, Jak," Keira tenderly reminded the man holding her closely.

"That's if I'm still alive, right?" Jak replied to the woman in his arms.

"If a hundred-foot Precursor robot, a sixty-ton metal head monster, and a gigantic Dark-Maker spider-looking machine driven by a cybernetic lunatic couldn't kill you, I don't think a little kart-race should even remotely scare you."

"Kart-race, right," Jak repeated, rolling his eyes with a grin. He was leaned back against his airship, loosely holding Keira.

"You're not scared, are you?" Keira asked mockingly.

"C'mon, when am I ever scared?" Jak countered with an arrogant smirk.

Keira faux-remembered, "Oh, wait, I think I recall a few nights ago—"

"Alright, I get your point," Jak quickly interrupted.

Suddenly, you know, right before they were about to kiss each other, one of the racing promoters walked by and yelled, "Hey, break-it-up, break-it-up! The race is starting in thirty seconds!"

"Well, good luck!" Keira told Jak, right before kissing him on the cheek. She walked behind the airship and began climbing down a ladder built into the side of an underground portion of the track.

Speaking of those underground portions of the track, there were eight of them in all, each accommodating the eight racers' vehicles. These underground spaces were actually used for the pit stops where the pit crews would go to work on the damaged aircrafts.

Jak touched his cheek with satisfied fingertips as he gave his shoes an embarrassed look. While he was deep in thought, Daxter strolled over from the pit and hopped up on Jak's shoulder. Noticing the red bulbs under Jak's eyes, Daxter asked, "What happened to you? You got some sugar or somethin'?"

Taking Jak's silence as a yes, Daxter crossed his arms and asked snappily, "And where was I?"

Suddenly, the racing promoter interrupted again through a megaphone, "Racers, into your vehicles!"

"No time," Jak replied to the ottsel. He climbed onto the wing of the _Assegai_ and slid into the opened cockpit. After closing the helm and fastening his seat belt, Jak paused and asked, "Uh…where exactly were you, anyway?"

"Trying to stowaway under the seat of that Mink chick's ship."

Before Jak could phrase his disapproval for such an ill-conceived action, Calypso's voice boomed over every speaker located throughout stands. To mention the stands, they seated about twenty thousand people on each side of the track. Since this track wasn't underground like the ones in the preliminary rounds, stands could only be placed around the starting line.

A blimp with a jumbo-sized screen affixed to the side floated above the track and stadium at a moderately low speed. The screen flickered to life to display Calypso's pleased face, which was probably just a façade to hide her still disdainful emotions from last night's encounter with Draksin.

Although her face was suspended in the air, her actual body was sitting on an emerald colored chair attached to a square-shaped floating platform not five yards beneath the blimp. Standing on the platform in the space next to the chair seating Calypso was none other than Link. He stood tall with his sword and shield latched onto the strap crossing his torso; he kept his clenched fists to his sides as his face displayed a severely stern expression.

"Salutations, sports fans!" Calypso greeted. She received a thundering crowd's applause; many people seemed to have become familiar with her. After the fans' ovation died down, Calypso continued, "This is the day you and I have been waiting for, where eight valiant racers will put their lives on the line to get a well sought-after wish. In the end, I will only be able to grant one of them their wish, but there's always next month to get back on the horse and give this competition another go…"

In the pit stop, Crash, Coco, Keira, Mario, Goofy, Bentley, Ratchet, and Clank were all standing in the rectangular underground cavity of the racetrack, staring up at the floating blimp. Ratchet was the first to take notice of the square platform holding Calypso. He also noticed someone else wearing a lot of green standing next to the sorceress.

"Who is that?" Ratchet mumbled. He quickly picked up a conveniently located pair of binoculars and held them up to his eyes. Through the distance, the Lombax could distinguish the Hylian Hero fiercely standing by Calypso's side. Alarmed, Ratchet notified everyone, "Guys, that's Link!"

"Wha'?" Mario stumbled. "Da pretty boy with the sword is up there?"

Taking the binoculars, Keira affirmed, "Yeah, he is! He must still be under that witch's mind-control!"

Clank commented, "It looks like he's being her bodyguard. How do you suppose we free him if he's protecting Calypso?"

"First, we help Jak in the race," Keira answered confidently. "Then, after it's all over, we should be able to get Link back when we defeat Calypso." Holding a communicator to her mouth, she asked, "You get all that, Jak?"

His voice responded through, "Oh yeah."

"Got it!" said Daxter.

Inside the cockpit of the _Assegai_, Jak and Daxter were most impatiently waiting for Calypso's speech to end. Finally, she concluded, "And without further ado, I'd like to start the Twisted Wipeout competition! Racers, on your marks…"

Captain Falcon popped a few bones in his neck as he gripped the steering wheel tighter.

"Get set…"

Gerardo inhaled a breath and didn't let go. He kept his focus on the road ahead of him.

"I didn't say go…"

Jak leaned forward and tensed up his entire body, keeping only his right foot loose on the pedal.

"Not yet…GO!"

Every racer at the starting line rocketed from their positions, leaving behind long exhaust trails from the backs of their engines. Captain Falcon had taken the league due to being closest to the wall after taking a sharp right turn. He drove his _Blue Falcon_ over a weapon pad, which activated a mine-drop mechanism. The captain used this mechanism, resulting in a trail of five small, floating mines being left behind him.

Gerardo and Minerva swerved around these mines; Shingo missed them completely. David, however, wasn't quite quick enough and received each mine head-on. (1) Falling in last place, David rolled his eyes with an irritated look as Jak, Sonic, and Speed Racer passed him up.

Meanwhile, Minerva and Gerardo had passed Captain Falcon thanks to speed boost pads. Gerardo picked up a rocket upgrade for his ship and blasted the three projectiles at the first-place mink's _Piranha. _One of the rockets hit its target, but a fluorescent shield had ignited around Min's ship, rendering the rocket useless as it exploded with no effect.

Inside her ship, Min calmly grasped the wheel and took a sharp left turn. She haughtily taunted, "Nice try, loser."

Meanwhile in sixth place, Jak was catching up with Captain Falcon, with Sonic the Hedgehog dead on his tail. Still in last place, David was in the middle of regaining his place by blasting Speed Racer with a homing missile. Utilizing a boost pad, David sped past Sonic and Jak.

Inside of his _Feisar_, Sonic cursed to himself, "Crap, now I'm in last place!"

Seeing a red weapon pad, Sonic took the opportunity to swerve to it and activate the ship's machine guns. He opened fire on the _Assegai_ in front of him, causing the vehicle to rattle, smoke, and sputter to the side of the track. As the hedgehog passed the troubled hero, he waved and said, "See ya in the victory lap!"

Meanwhile, Jak was having trouble giving his engines the proper kick to get going again. Daxter yelled, "Do something, Jak!"

"It's not working!" Jak responded with frustration.

"Okay, then do something ELSE Jak!" Daxter pled.

"Wait, it's working again!" Jak said with relief this time. Starting the acceleration, the Demolition Duo blasted forward once again, in desperate need of regaining their place.

Back in the pit stop, Keira and the others were watching the single racing-screen intently. All were watching except for Crash. The bandicoot seemed to be preoccupied with something else at the moment, judging by the way he nervously twiddled a wrench between his fingers.

Coco noticed this and quickly coaxed, "C'mon—focus, bro."

Crash looked up and gave her a psyched-out look. Coco returned a puzzled expression and asked, "You doing alright?"

"I had another dream…" Crash suddenly blurted. "It was super real…"

Coco looked back at the racing-monitor and then to Crash again. She nagged, "Now of all times, you wanna talk about it!"

"No, you don't understand! I saw Sonic in my dream!"

"Who?" Coco asked, confused.

Realizing he had given away Rade's true identity, Crash skipped ahead, "Um…never mind that, but I also saw Mom!"

Before Coco could deliver a response that matched her awestruck expression, Jak's distressed voice came over the pit stop's communicator, "Guys, so far, I've been hit by machine guns, a missile, and a few rockets! I'm coming in for a pit stop next lap!"

Mario asked in disbelief, "Geez, what are you the main target?"

Daxter's angry voice rang back through, "Hey, we're gettin' murdered out here! Show some respect!"

Jak added, "We're gonna need an extra left wing! Our current one's useless. We can hardly turn left."

Keira replied, "Got it, Jak! We're prepping the docking sequence right now!" She turned to the dog knight and commanded, "Goofy, activate the tractor beam!"

"Aye-aye, Miss Captain!" Goofy saluted, pulling down a nearby lever.

As Coco prepared to assume the pit crew positions with Mario, Keira, Clank, Ratchet, and Goofy, she looked back at her brother and told him, "We'll talk later—right now, we need your help!"

Crash nodded determinedly. "Got it, sis!"

"We're coming in!" Daxter alerted everyone over the intercom.

Indeed they were; Jak was driving the _Assegai_ in last place through the starting line portion of the track, where the many fans were cheering the racers on. However, before he could cross the line to start the next lap, control of the ship was suddenly robbed from the duo as they entered the tractor beam. Jak let go of the wheel as the ship was steadily but surely pulled down into the underground pit stop, where his pit crew was clearing out of the way for the ship's landing.

Bentley operated a robotic crane of sorts that consisted of two large robotic arms extending from a wall; with two stick shifts, Bentley maneuvered these "arms" over to the left wing of the _Assegai_, where Crash, Coco, Keira, Mario, Clank, Ratchet, and Goofy were hastily unhooking the damaged wing. After Clank successfully unscrewed key parts of the wing, all six standing pit crew heroes utilized teamwork to hold up the wing and guide it into each of the robotic arms' hands.

With the damaged wing in the robot's hands, Bentley maneuvered the arms over to a supply rack and set the useless extremity down inside it. Quickly, Bentley grabbed a fresh wing from the same rack and guided it back to the awaiting heroes. Crash, Coco, Keira, Mario, Ratchet, and Goofy quickly grabbed the wing from the robot and moved it in place for Clank to drill the screws in their correct sites.

After the little robot completed that task, the remaining six heroes finished the job by latching on the final hinges of the new wing.

Pulling the tractor beam's lever to the "detract" position, Keira shouted to the racing duo, "You're good, now go!"

Jak gave a small salute as the _Assegai_ lifted out of the pit and back onto the over-ground track. Pulling in last place, Jak glanced down at his ship's control panel, which displayed his ship's core integrity. "Not good, Dax, we're halfway to critical!"

Daxter complained, "Aw, man, Jak! Get your head in the game, you big ugly lump!"

"That's not exactly helping!" Jak retaliated.

"What, did I hurt those oh-so sensitive feelings of yours, Jak?" Daxter yelled into Jak's ear.

Noticing that he was nearing the next racer ahead of him, Jak commented with astonishment, "You actually ARE helping!"

Daxter rudely responded, "Yeah, well it seems like one of us has gotta do something right, you useless sack of slimy slag!"

In a fierce tone, Jak growled, "Okay, that's enough…"

Backing off sheepishly, Daxter retracted quickly, "Yes, I agree…"

The Demolition Duo was steadily coming up on the _Blue Falcon_. Jak tried easing around the vehicle's right side, but the Captain decided that wasn't happening. Captain Falcon rammed his ride into Jak's ship, causing the latter of which to crash and skid onto the track's wall.

"Hey!" Daxter screamed in anger. "Watch it!"

Jak fiercely tried bumping the Captain's _Blue Falcon_ back, but he wouldn't budge. Jak had no choice but to slam on the brakes and fall back behind in last place again. Luckily, Jak drove over and picked up a Super Speed Boost from a Weapon Pad. Determined to get out of last place, Jak used his speed boost.

With the acceleration of a hundred mustangs pulling, the _Assegai_ sped forward; Jak aimed to go around the _Blue Falcon_, but once again, Captain Falcon would not allow that.

Captain Falcon swiftly swerved to where Jak was going to accelerate; this resulted in Jak's _Assegai_ slamming into the back of Captain's Falcon's _Blue Falcon_. (1)

"DAMN!" Jak swore as his and Daxter's bodies flew forward from the impact. It's a good thing at least one of them was wearing a seatbelt. While the ottsel scraped himself off of the windshield, Jak barked, "This guy's starting to piss me OFF!"

Captain Falcon smirked into his rearview mirrors as Mar fell behind again. He looked forward to Speed Racer and remembered he had more important duties to take care of. Suddenly, Arden Calypso's voice came on inside the vehicle's communicator, "Oh Captain Falcon, you may carry out your order now."

The Captain nodded firmly. "Yes, Calypso."

"Use the Novastrike on him. And make it quick."

"Understood, Calypso," Captain Falcon replied in the same tone.

High up above the Ninth Heaven track, Calypso smiled deviously as Captain Falcon hung up the line. She had spoken with him through a secret speaker built into the arm of her luxurious chair. Link was still standing at the throne's side, completely resilient in his statue-like expression.

Calypso said, "Oh, that Captain Falcon. Good bounty hunters come in scarce these days, don't they Link?"

The fully brainwashed Link replied in a monotone, "Yes, Calypso."

After hanging up the line, Captain Falcon entered a secret button code on his control panel, causing the panel to read aloud to him, "Novastrike activated."

With a final press of a button, a star-shaped missile launched from the _Blue Falcon's_ nose and spun in the air after Speed Racer's _Mach 5000_.

Looking in his rearview mirror, Speed questioned, "What's that?"

The star-shaped projectile latched itself onto the back of the _Mach 5000_ and began peeping. Speed felt the impact of whatever it was and stated in confusion, "Wha—? Something's gotten stuck on the _Mach 5000_! How can this be? _Ha-ha?"_

The beeping object abruptly stopped beeping. Captain Falcon said under his breath, "You're gone."

Suddenly, the entire _Mach 5000_ exploded into flaming pieces of metal, leaving debris skidding all over the track.

With wide eyes, Jak and Daxter looked back and forth at each other. The orange one commented, "Staying behind this guy doesn't sound so bad, now that you bring it up."

* * *

Aku Aku had rejoined our heroes in Russia. Along with the other six heroes, he was determined to do everything in his power to retrieve Crunch and put an end to Dr. Mavo.

The precursors Glennatus, Gladdus, and Orphco were also traveling with the heroes on foot. Currently, the heroes and precursors were playing a trivia-related game of Q & A. Quizzically, Glen asked, "'Kay, so how many pages are in your Thievius Raccoonus?"

Sly proudly answered, "Three hundred twenty five and counting. My son will add a page one of these days."

"You have a son?" Riku asked.

"Not yet, but when I do, he'll learn everything there is to know about being a Cooper," Sly said, crossing his arms boldly.

"What if you have a daughter?" Kairi asked.

Stumped, Sly shrugged and answered, "Nah, I'll make sure I make a son."

Sora cut in, "Our turn. If you precursors are godly beings, how come you don't have more super powers like stopping bullets and making people explode?"

Orphco chuckled and commented, "I guess someone's been watching _Watchmen_."

"Just because we're blue doesn't make us a bunch of Dr. Manhattans!" the teenaged Gladdus retorted with resentment.

Orphco continued, "The truth is we're not the 'invincible gods' most of you think we are. Precursors are merely ancient deities that have been given special talents. In fact, each world has Precursors with their own unique abilities."

Murray asked, "Wait, you mean there are more precursors for other worlds, too?"

Orphco answered, "Yes, each and every world has their own race of precursors. Most every world's precursors are often times called the 'angels'. We Precursors of Twilight possess the ability to walk in betwixt dimensions. In Jak's world, little furry ottsels were chosen as the Precursors, and they have the power of sorcery."

"So what about this world, then?" Donald asked. "Does this place have precursors?"

"Yep!" Glen answered. "They're a cavalry of angels who work for a miracle worker named God!"

Sly commented, "Well, that was to the point."

Glen continued, "But then there was this one renegade precursor named Lucifer…well, you know the rest."

Gladdus impatiently intterupted, "Is it our turn yet? You guys asked, like, eight questions just now."

Glen agreed, "Yeah, I've got a question for Aku Aku. Were you ever human, or were you always a floating plank?"

The floating witchdoctor mask replied, "No, I've been human before. Long ago, I was the Shaman King who practiced good Mojo, and I had an evil, jealous brother who practiced bad Mojo. After an epic fight that consisted of many swooshy backgrounds, we both lost our physical bodies, but our souls were preserved in tribal masks handcrafted by the people I governed. The only way my brother and I can become **reborn** again is if we collect two sacred relics called the Staff of Xi and the Talisman of Xi, but they're safely locked away in the Core of the Forgotten Realm."

"Interesting…" Orphco muttered.

(2)

* * *

Since we last left off, each racer in the Twisted Wipeout's Grand Prix had used their pit stops at least once in the past few laps to make simple repairs to their vehicles. Jak and Daxter had revisited the pit stop five more times for repairs on their fenders, thrusters, and wings. However, all of these pit stops had caused the duo to remain in last place, earning quick, rude quips from Mario. ("How can ya take so much damage in _last place_?")

In first place of the remaining seven racers, Minerva Mink was having pretty good time maintaining her golden position. The Dominican man behind her would keep trying to find a way to pass her up by any means necessary, but would ultimately keep failing. She snorted a laugh before saying, "You can keep trying, sweetie, but it ain't gonna happen. And I bet that sounds pretty familiar to you, too!"

In the _Icaras, _Gerardo angrily muttered under his breath, "That chica better not be insulting me, right now…"

Suddenly, Gerardo's entire ride jolted to the side; Shingo Miyami had jerkishly slammed his _Auricom_ into Gerardo's vehicle, causing the latter of which to collide into the wall. Shingo stole second place and ran over a weapon pad, collecting a Plasma pickup. (The Plasma pickup was basically a projectile-like grenade that shot forward, exploding in a purple ball of energy against whatever was unfortunate enough to be in its path.)

Shingo smirked and activated his new weapon.

Back inside the _Piranha_, Minerva spotted the purple ball charging on the front of Shingo's ship; instinctively, she activated the Shield Charger pickup she had saving up, but soon wished she hadn't. What she had forgotten about the Plasma weapon was the fact that you could hold it on your ship for as long as you want until you saw fit to release the deadly projectile. In other words, Shingo was charging the Plasma bomb and tactfully waiting for Min's shields to deactivate.

When her shield time expended, Min cursed at the glowing ball in her rearview mirror, "Aw, you no good friggin'…"

Shingo laughed manically before releasing the Plasma bomb and insulting her, "Hahaha! Take that, stupid mink-chick!"

The Plasma bomb shot through the air and exploded on impact with Minerva's back thrusters, partially disabling her vehicle. Shingo adeptly stole first place, followed by Gerardo, David, Sonic, Minerva, Captain Falcon, and Jak.

Speaking of Jak, his ship's core integrity was in dire straits. Jak commanded, "Think, Dax, how do we regain core integrity?"

Daxter earnestly suggested, "Pit stop?"

"No, there's nothing the others can do to keep the ship from exploding. Plus, we're in LAST place, if you couldn't tell, so I'm really not in the mood to fall behind even more."

As Jak rolled over a weapon pad and obtained a Bomb pickup, Daxter stated, "Oh, man, we really should've been paying attention on that part!"

Jak wracked his mind over and over for an answer but came up with none. Looking down at the panel's dwindling integrity display, he suddenly shouted angrily, "Come on! We always come out alive, no matter what! THIS can't be where reality finally catches up with us!"

Daxter stood upright on Jak's shoulder and said, "You're right! We've gotta think of…" Daxter trailed off on account of the fact that he really needed to let off a sneeze. "Gotta think of…ah…ah, ah-choo!"

Daxter fell forward into the control panel and hit a random button. Somehow, the Bomb pickup Jak obtained was suddenly deactivated and withdrawn. As a result of this, the ship's core integrity increased by ten percent.

Stammering, Jak said, "Dax…you did it!"

"You're right, I did! But which button did I hit?" Daxter desperately asked.

"No clue." Jak ran over yet another weapon pad and acquired a Mines pickup. The blonde hero suddenly got an idea. "Daxter, I need you to sneeze yourself off of my shoulder again and hit the panel exactly the way you just now did!"

"What? Are you crazy? I'm not a machine, I can't just turn it on and off!" Daxter retaliated. "I at least need some pepper! Or a pretty girl to talk about me!"

"On it!" Jak replied, picking up the communicator. "Keira! Um…can you get Coco to say something good about Daxter for a second?"

Back in the pit, Keira and the others gave the communicator an odd look. Coco asked, "I'm sorry, WHAT?"

"It's life or death!" Jak replied desperately. "There's no time to explain!"

After hearing Jak hang up the comm. line, everyone in the pit turned to Coco and gave her a worried look. Ratchet rushed, "Well? Hurry up!"

Coco stood there with a blank expression. "Hold on, I'm thinking…"

Crash panicked, "Apparently, you don't know what LIFE or DEATH means!"

Coco shot back, "Hey! You try thinking of saying something nice about that nasty little weasel!"

Back in the _Assegai_, Daxter sneezed himself off Jak's shoulder and landed on the same random button, sacrificing the weapon Jak had picked up. Jak picked up the communicator and yelled triumphantly, "It worked!"

Back in the pit crew, the others had all let out a collective, "Huh?"

Jak only responded, "Hold on, I'm picking up another weapon…I need you to do that one more time, Coco, then Dax and I will be good until the end of the race!"

Hearing Jak hang up again, Coco timidly replied, "Um…okay?"

Clank inserted his input, "Miss Bandicoot, if I may suggest, due to the laws of cosmic science, you might actually need to INSULT Daxter behind his back."

"You think so?" Coco asked.

"I'm ninety five percent sure," Clank affirmed.

"Okay…so, er, if there was fight between Daxter and Crash, I'd have my money on the stupid one winning!"

The other heroes chuckled at the small joke, including Crash. Even Mario chuckled as he added humorously, "It's funny because we don't know which one she means by 'the stupid one!'"

Crash suddenly stopped laughing as he realized something. "Hey! I forgot to charge my phone last night—darn it!"

Ratchet leaned in close to Coco and commented in a whisper, "Sounds like you've been saving that one."

"Oh, yeah," Coco lowly confirmed with a grin.

Back in the race, the boys were back in business. Jak conveniently picked up a Super Speed Boost and blasted his engines, thrusting forward past Captain Falcon and Minerva with great speed. Next, Jak drove over a moderate speed boost to gain on Rade Hedge, who was desperately trying to regain his position in front of David Hughes. Jak drove over a weapon pad and received the machine guns.

Daxter pointed out, "Whoa, didn't that Rade jerk blast us in the beginning of the race with machine guns?" Then, both he and Jak deviously moved their eyebrows up and down. The ottsel rhetorically asked, "Don't you love that good ol' poetic justice, Jak? Blast the sucka!"

Jak did just that; pressing both buttons on his steering wheel, the forty-caliber Gatling guns on the _Assegai_ let it rain on the back of the _Feisar_ airship. Daxter yelled, "Get some!"

Sonic lost control of the _Feisar_ as it rocked and shook from the pellets pinging off of it. When the Ninth Heaven track made a swift left turn, Sonic involuntarily crashed his vehicle into the approaching wall. Jak took the left turn and sped forward to start the final lap. After crossing the line, he looked forward where David Hughes and Gerardo Lopez were duking it out for second place. Both racers continuously rammed into each other's side fenders, leaving behind sparks and traces of debris on the track.

Jak drove over another weapon pad and sped past the two dueling racers. David took notice of Mar's sudden appearance and muttered, "Oh, no you don't…"

Shooting off a homing missile, David figured that he had taken care of the long-eared pest. Instead, after the smoke from the explosion cleared, he saw that Mar's _Assegai_ was still intact because a fluorescent shield had appeared around it.

Since the final lap was concluding, Jak had no time to waste in finding out how get past Shingo. Picking up a speed boost, Jak used it to burst forward, but Shingo had pulled the same garbage trick Captain Falcon had used; the Japanese racer swerved over to where Jak was going to speed ahead of him and let the long-eared racer inadvertently ram into the back of his vehicle, discontinuing Jak's speed boost.

Daxter fiercely yelled, "Not this again! Jak, get us close enough to his ugly ship!"

Jak gave the ottsel an odd look. "What exactly are you planning on doing, Dax?"

Daxter smirked. "What we always do, Jak. Improvise!"

"Let me guess—you're planning on jumping out onto his ship! Dax, that's against the rules…probably!"

Orange Lighting gave Jak a flat look. "You know something? I've had the tremendous pleasure of sticking by your side during this whole course of death races, and I still have yet to see ONE STINKIN' RULE BOOK! Seriously, what's up with that? It doesn't matter now, though, because we have a race to win!"

Sighing, Jak said, "Whatever you say, Dax. Don't slip." Jak opened the helm of the _Assegai _and let Daxter run along the wing to the tip of their ship. Driving closer to Shingo's _Auricom_, Jak witnessed Daxter summon the courage to leap onto the rear fender of the first placemen's ship. Like a daredevil with a death-wish, Daxter fearlessly crawled along to the back of the ship's cockpit.

Unbeknownst to Shingo, Daxter was standing on the top of his glass helm, preparing for a sneak attack. Shingo smirked to himself, seeing the finishing line off in the distance. He said aloud to himself, "This race was mine before it started."

Like a monster ripped right out of a low-budget horror flick, Daxter slammed his gaping, screaming face against the windshield from the outside.

Letting go of the wheel and the pedal, Shingo girlishly screamed, "AAAAAAH!"

This bought Jak barely enough time to swerve around the slowing racer and take the lead. Right as he did, Daxter jumped ship once again, landing on the _Assegai's_ right wing. Together, the Demolition Duo claimed first place, earning the roaring applause from the crowd.

An astonished Chick Gizzard Lips screamed, "I don't believe it, folks! Mar has made one record-breaking comeback from twelve laps in last place to the final two seconds in first! It's amazing! Mar finishes this race with Shingo in second, David in third, Gerardo in fourth, Minerva in fifth, Sonic in sixth, Captain Falcon in seventh, and the unfortunate Speed Racer in eighth."

* * *

Keira, Goofy, Mario, Ratchet, Clank, Crash, Coco, and Bentley all celebrated with joy, jumping up and down in pure elation. One by one, they each took the ladder that led out of the underground pit and rushed over to bombard Jak and Daxter's sweaty figures with manly sports-hugs, Keira's tender hug for Jak being the only exception. As the heroes rejoiced in their triumphant victory, sports reporters and camera-crews quickly flocked and flooded to Jak's position with microphones and cameramen at the ready.

While Ratchet was still delivering a series of high-fives to Jak, someone pulled him away from behind. He turned around to spot a giggling Coco Bandicoot tugging on his gloved hand. She stepped up on the tip of her toes to whisper in Ratchet's long ear, "Let's go back into the pit…!"

The Lombax nodded. "Sure!"

He followed her through the torrent of reporters and back down the ladder into the pit. It was quieter down there, but not by much. Coco was still holding Ratchet's hand when they both leaned against a wall in exasperation.

"That was such a rush!" Ratchet commented excitedly.

"I know!" Coco agreed. "First, I thought we weren't going to win, then, I thought we _really_ weren't gonna win! Then, when they called and told me to say nice stuff about Daxter, I was all like, 'What the heck?' But then we started winning! And we started winning some more! And then—!"

"We won!" Ratchet inserted with an amused expression.

"Yep!" said Coco.

As they both started laughing, Ratchet suddenly noticed something odd. "Um…when did we start holding each other?"

Indeed, the two were holding each other in their arms rather closely. How they failed to notice such an intimate position is completely silly. However, Coco shrugged and said, "It's been a crazy day, so I may as well do this…"

The bandicootess leaned forward and connected her lips to the Lombax's perplexed ones. Then, after a few seconds of analyzing that Coco was actually kissing him, and a few more seconds of thinking _Holicrap…_ Ratchet found it wise to kiss back.

* * *

_1) Head on—that reminds me of Twisted Metal: Head On, which has to be one of the most entertaining PSP games ever made. I swear, I r*pe as Sweet Tooth…_

_2) That little short story about Aku Aku's original human self is, of course, made up by me. It's got a little something to do with __**Uka Uka Reborn.**_

_Oh, man, that thing when Jak tries to speed forward but keeps crashing into the backs of other vehicles is a common frustration for me in the WipEout games! It's called MOVE, people!_

_And then that thing about not knowing how to restore core integrity—yeah, I figured out how to do that after completing the entire campaign of the PS3 version of the game. Thanks for the tutorial explaining I can sacrifice weapons for extra life, ya jerks!_

_Oh, yeah, and the next chapter will be uploaded sometime tomorrow._


	61. Battlecry

_Why there's not a front door on Calypso's estate, I'm not entirely sure…_

**Chapter 61: Battlecry**

"Well, it looks like my reality TV show will have to go on hold."

"How can I get Antonio out of prison now?"

"Great. Countless riches, cars, clothes, and women all down the drain."

"I'll have to keep trying in next month's race. Next time, I won't use a stupid airship—I'll run!"

The four disappointed racers mentioned above (Minerva, Gerardo, Shingo, and Sonic respectively) couldn't nearly feel the amount of shame and misery David Hughes was experiencing. Sitting with his back against the track's protective wall, David had his face buried in his crossed arms. His daughter Beth walked over to him with a solemn expression. She tried comforting him, "Dad, it's okay. We can try again next month."

With sadness plagued across his face, David looked up at Beth and said, "No, Bethany…this is childish. Just stupid and childish."

"Huh?" Beth murmured.

"Maybe we need to do what's right. Maybe we should let her go." Receiving a disbelieving look from his daughter, David continued, "Beth, I can't keep doing this to you. I got extremely lucky and survived this competition. If I were to die in the next race, I would never be able to forgive myself for leaving you. All that we've been doing…it's so reckless. And it's taken me till just now to realize that we need to let her go."

Meanwhile, Jak was told that he needed to walk to Calypso's palace to make his wish. Strolling on the racetrack, the long-eared hero spotted a towering suite a quarter of a mile away in the distance. The large edifice partially blocked out the afternoon sun. The path to the palace was actually along part of the Ninth Heaven racetrack itself; along the way, the other six racers who had lost the competition were scattered about that portion of the racetrack.

Keira, Crash, Coco, Goofy, Bentley, Mario, Ratchet and Clank were closely following behind Jak. Daxter scurried up and hopped on Jak's left shoulder and whispered uneasily into Jak's ear, "Whoa…get a load of their mugs."

The other racers were glaring daggers at Jak and his pit crew as they passed by. The three racers who weren't giving Jak dirty looks were Sonic, who shrugged and gave the group a thumbs up, Captain Falcon, who was nowhere to be found, and David Hughes, who was still sitting against the track's wall with his head in his arms.

Jak only returned the scornful racers' glares. He continued leading his allies toward Calypso's palace when someone ran up to him from behind and tugged on his arm. Jak turned around to see David's daughter standing before him.

"You're Mar, right?" she asked.

Jak nodded.

"Well…I hear you really didn't have a wish to make, did you?"

Jak and Daxter gave each other odd looks before the human of the duo replied, "Sorry, but we've got business to take care of with Calypso, and I can't let anyone get in our way."

As Jak was about to turn back around, Bethany grabbed his arm once more and pled, "Wait, mister! I don't want to take away your trip to Calypso's palace."

"Good, 'cuz you weren't getting it," Jak replied coldly as he pulled his arm free and continued to walk away.

"No, I just want you to…make use of the free wish you have. That's all!"

Daxter tapped on Jak's ear and suggested, "Maybe we should hear her out, Jak. Besides, we're not making a wish, anyway."

Jak stopped walking and gave the girl his attention. Bethany pled, "Since you're not really making a wish for yourself, can you ask Calypso to bring back everyone who's died from this competition so far? Please, sir!"

Jak cut his eyes to the side in deep thought. Suddenly, he received a furry back-hand against his temple. He looked to the side at Daxter, who was angrily saying, "What is wrong with you? Look into those sad, innocent eyes and dare to say no!"

It was true. Bethany's puppy dog eyes were too much even for the Dark Eco Freak. Jak relented and said, "Alright, kid. Before we kill—I mean, take care of Calypso, I'll tell her you're wish."

"Thank you, sir!" Bethany cried before hugging Jak around the waist.

When the little girl released her grip and ran back to her father, Keira came up from behind Jak and cooed, "Aw, that's so sweet of you! This is like something Sora would do."

"Yeah, whatever…" Jak tried to play off his embarrassment.

The heroes had traveled to the edge of the track that sat before the large palace. Strangely, a floating platform was awaiting the heroes right beyond the racetrack's wall. Yeah, that's right. It was a floating platform. A _floating platform_. But since the heroes weren't going to pretend like they didn't see this type of sighting every ten minutes in their old adventures, all ten of them shrugged and climbed over the track's protective wall onto the flat, square-shaped platform.

Instantly, the platform began floating upward along the palace's outer walls until it reached the penthouse at the top floor. Stopping at a high-up window, the heroes guessed this was where they got off. Each hopping through the window and inside the penthouse, the heroes marveled at the numerous paintings and decorative junk scattered around the violet walls of the room.

They had landed in some luxurious lobby of sorts; in addition to the paintings, there were also statues affixed to fountains in some areas, and even a wide koi pond complete with koi fish in the middle of the lobby.

A Wipeout employee in a black suit and sunglasses was waiting in front of a door on the other side of the room. He informed the heroes, "Calypso will call you in momentarily."

Making his way across the room, Jak said, "Well, I'm sort of anxious to meet her."

The employee advised, "Well, she's speaking with a client right now. You'll have to wait."

Sighing, Jak said, "Fine, alright."

After a short wait, Calypso's voice came over the lobby's intercom, "Charles, please send in the lucky winner."

The employee named Charles replied, "Madam Calypso, there is more than one winner."

"Just send the one they call Mar. I want to have a special talk with him."

"I'm sure you do…" Keira mumbled under her breath. She turned to Jak and warned, "If she tries any of that mind-control business on you, put a bullet in her face, got it?"

"Don't worry," Jak said cockily. "I'll make sure she grants that wish and nothing else."

"Right, well speaking of 'nothing else'," Daxter transitioned, jumping to the ground, "can ya get her number for me in case she turns a new leaf?"

Sighing again, Jak said, "I'll be right back, Dax."

"Don't forget about Bethany's wish!" Bentley reminded as Charles escorted Jak through the door.

Jak and the Wipeout employee silently walked down a dark, narrow hallway until they reached the door to Calypso's office. There were voices chattering inside the room, one of which belonged to Calypso. Charles briefly told Jak to wait for Calypso to finish her conference before entering.

Jak could hear the sorceress say, "If you wanted to get paid, you should have taken out the rest of the racers."

A man's voice retaliated, "Our deal was that I only hunt down one racer of my choice for you. And I chose Speed Racer. End of story."

"Well, at that time, I was under the impression that more racers would die in the Grand Prix. Were you not racing out there with them? It was a snooze fest! Just utter rubbish! The only casualty was the one I ordered you to cause. People watch this sport for the death and destruction, and we didn't receive a lot of that today."

"You're a liar and a cheat, Calypso!" the man shouted back. "I'm a bounty hunter, and I did my job! Now pay me!"

"Oh, Captain Falcon, if that is your real name, I'll have your money in no time. Why don't you…just wait outside on the racetrack."

Sounding confused and a bit brainwashed, Captain Falcon then replied uneasily, "Er…yes, Calypso. I shall wait outside on the racetrack."

"Good. I guess now would be a good time to activate these Wipeout cameras again."

Before he knew it, Jak had stepped out of the way to let Captain Falcon proceed out the office's doors and pass Jak and the Wipeout bodyguard. The Captain didn't utter a single word to either of them.

Charles said to Jak, "You may enter Madam Calypso's office, now."

Ushered into the room by Charles, Jak took a look around and took notice of three things: first, it was the giant hole in the opposite wall covered in a blue tarp; second, it was the brainwashed Link standing next to Calypso's desk; and third, it was the sorceress herself sitting on the edge of her desk with one leg crossed over the other in an informal fashion. Jak tried to hide his disdain for the witch who had enslaved his ally's mind. For the time being, anyway.

With cameras floating all around the room, Calypso greeted, "Good to see you, Mar."

"I've gotta wish to make," Jak stated business-like.

"Straight to the climax," Arden commented. "You don't want to build up any suspense?"

"No."

"Hmph, I'll bet you're a real hit with the ladies. Alright, what will be your wish?"

Jak narrowed his eyes at Link for a second and then scowled back at Calypso. "I want everyone who's died because of this race so far to be brought back to life."

"What a selfless and kind wish. To think an emotionless man of very few words could even find such kindness in his heart…"

Jak stood his ground as Calypso hopped down from the desk and meandered over to him. Wait, something was happening to him. Suddenly, he could feel his heart racing as the temptress walked closer to him; she smiled a devious smirk, staring into him with her green eyes.

Instinctively, Jak looked away in another direction. He could still feel her red-hot gaze trying to look into his cerulean eyes. Calypso asked, "Are you sure you wouldn't rather wish to be my servant, Mar?"

Jak blinked and felt Calypso's hand grasp his chin and guide his face in front of hers. Jak inadvertently looked back into her eyes and suddenly felt all kinds of risqué emotions for her. Why was he feeling this way? Through his confusion, he strained, "Let go of me…!"

"How about I don't…"

Meanwhile, in the hallway just outside of the sorceress' office, the other heroes were crept against the closed door. Behind the eavesdropping heroes, Charles the bodyguard was knocked-out on the floor, obviously incapacitated. Keira closely pressed one of her long ears against the door, hearing everything going on in inside.

Ratchet, however, couldn't. He complained, "Aw, man I can't hear a single thing!"

"Neither can I," Bentley joined, struggling to hear anything.

In a livid tone, Keira whispered, "I can. That genie-lady is totally touching all over Jak, I know it."

"How can you be so sure?" Coco asked.

Mario suddenly cut in, "Wit' ears like those, she could probably hear my arteries clogging."

Back in Calypso's office, Jak was fighting to stand his ground as Arden ran her hands around his broad shoulders. He was blinking rapidly, trying to figure out why he felt the urge to service Calypso's every need, and the entire time he did so, he could feel his gaze fall back and forth between the floor and Calypso.

Jak was sweating. His heart was racing, and his breathing was paced. His legs felt like brittle wood, and his lips quivered uncontrollably. The only thing on his mind was the beautiful woman in front of him and what he could do to gratify her. Wait a minute…Jak had been in this situation before. In fact, he was able to overcome this pressure and earn himself a "score point" from it on many occasions. It was then that Jak realized he could really beat this. (Because "Jak beats things all the time," right?)

Calypso said tenderly, "Let's recant that silly wish of yours, shall we?"

"Okay…" Jak said in a mesmerized tone. "I wish for…exactly what I said earlier!" Jak stepped backward and gave some distance between him and the now disappointed sorceress. The blonde hero was really starting to lose his patience. The sooner he and the others could start fighting Calypso, the better.

Scoffing, Calypso asked, "Okay, you mind explaining why that didn't work on you?"

"Look…" Jak narrowed his eyes and glowered at her, "I've got a wish and you're supposed to grant it. That's the deal."

Rolling her eyes, Calypso conceded, "Fine, have it your way, cowboy." She snapped her fingers and a large glass bottle of sand floated from the surface of her desk to her hand. Through the opened bottle, the sands flowed out from it and became suspended in the air.

With her own magic, Calypso waved her hands around mystically and the sands began to take shape of many, many miniature figures of sorts. Nonchalantly, Calypso gazed at the figures and said, "So these are all the people who've died in this competition. Tragic…"

Jak impatiently shifted his weight to the other foot while Calypso went on, "Alright, I'll raise all the dead from their respective graves, give them back their lives, and bring them back to their loved ones. Happy?"

"Yeah," Jak answered. "This is actually the most descent thing you've done."

"There, you're wish has been granted," Calypso notified with a glazed look as the sandy figures dissipated into smaller grains.

"Good. Now it's a shame my friends and I will have to punish you."

Craning her neck, Calypso asked, "Come again?"

Jak yelled, "GUYS, NOW!"

Suddenly, Keira, Mario, Crash, Coco, Goofy, Bentley, Daxter, Ratchet, and Clank all burst through the door, catching the attention of the sorceress and the few floating cameras. Each interfering hero noticed the brainwashed Link idly standing next Calypso with a stern expression for the intruders.

As if on cue, Crash yelled in a heroic voice, "Did somebody order a beat-down with a side of hurt?"

Coco cheered, "Yay, big brother! That was surprisingly not super lame!"

However, Crash continued in his heroic voice, "You can exchange your order's side of hurt for a small bowl of piping hot hiney-whoopin', or for today's special, sizzled ouches!"

Discontented, Ratchet said, "Um…okay, that'll do, dude."

Still, Crash continued, "You may also choose to order a small, medium, or large soft drink of pain! And if you supersize your meal of almighty carnage, you'll get a free apple DIE!"

Standing on Crash's shoulder, Daxter sighed, grabbed the bridge of his nose, and said, "…Just shut up, Crash."

"What the—what's going on here?" Calypso shouted. Realizing something, she asked the ottsel, "Wait, did you just call him Crash? I've heard blondie say it before—and now again?"

Coco cursed, "Oh, crap—no, he meant Chris!"

"I knew it, you ARE Crash Bandicoot! My superior, Draksin, has been losing sleep trying to find you!" Calypso suddenly looked around at everyone with a paranoid look. "Draksin also warned me that Crash had accomplices."

Breaking the tension, Crash giggled and pointed around to his allies. "Looks like you guys are my accomplishers!"

"There is no way that all of you buffoons, especially this orange idiot, defeated Reiden in his dragon form!" Calypso said in disbelief.

Daxter jumped from Crash's shoulder to Jak's and said, "Well, believe it, baby! And we're not gonna stop exterminating bad guys until we've got no breath left. Why?" Daxter crossed his arms and nobly said, "'Cuz that's what ottsels and heroes do."

All this time, the sand from the bottle was still floating around in the air like scattered grains underwater. Calypso moved around her hands, causing the sands to swirl in a vortex of sorts. The sorceress stated, "You all might find that I'm a bit more resourceful and intelligent than Reiden Long…"

"Ch-yeah, so?" Crash scoffed.

Suddenly, with the force of a storm, the sands controlled by Calypso rushed forward at the heroes, causing them to shield their eyes from the extreme discomfort. Next, Calypso further demonstrated her mastery of telekinesis by gaining a psychic hold over all ten of the heroes and yanking them towards her. Before the flying heroes came in contact with her, her entire body dematerialized like steam from a pot of boiling water and let the heroes continue their flight across her office until they reached the gaping hole in the wall that Calypso had blasted the night before. Each hero went flying straight through the blue, protective tarp wrapped over the hole and instantly began plummeting alongside of the palace to the far racetrack down below.

Goofy yelled to their descent, "JERONIMO!"

With Daxter screeching at the top of his lungs and holding onto his shoulder pad armor for dear life, Jak immediately grabbed Keira around her waist and screamed, "HOLD ON!"

While Jak activated his Light powers, Bentley activated the jet-fire mod on his chair. The turtle quickly caught Mario's descending hand, determined to not let go. Unfortunately, the jet-fire from one of the four rockets on his chair lit the plumber's hat on fire.

Meanwhile, Crash called downward to the plummeting bandicootess, "Hey, Coco, we should put our Mojo Flight skills to good use!"

Coco called back up, "Great idea, big brother!"

With ease, Crash concentrated and channeled his Mojo to surround himself and began using the energy screen like a thruster to keep himself afloat in the air. He looked up and adeptly caught Goofy's body over his shoulder. "I gotcha, pal!"

"Thanks, Crash. I thought I was a goner!" Goofy gratefully thanked, struggling to keep balance on the bandicoot's scrawny shoulder.

Suddenly, Coco's voice called up, "Crash, I—I can't start the flight!"

"What?" Crash responded. He looked down to see that Coco was still helplessly falling. His heart sank as he noticed the ground wasn't too far away from her, either. "Coco!"

Instantly, Crash nosedived and bulleted downward for his sister with Goofy still slung over his shoulder. He flew as fast as his Mojo Flight would allow him, clenching his jaw and stiffening his body. He extended his hand as far as he could to try and reach her leg, but she was already falling too fast.

"Just a little more!" Crash hollered over the raging winds.

Suddenly, something connected to a helicopter-like device zipped past Crash and grabbed Coco right out of the air. Whatever it was, the savior gently slowed down and gracefully landed on the racetrack. It was Ratchet and Clank, of course, the Lombax holding his cargo with care.

"Gotcha!" Ratchet shouted upon landing. After setting her down, his heroic posture deflated when the bandicootess timidly looked to the ground without thanking him. Apprehensively, Ratchet said, "Um, you don't have to be all 'My hero' and everything, but how about a 'thanks'?"

Coco shook her head and dejectedly said, "Sorry, I should have been able fly on my own. I guess I got caught up."

Meanwhile, Jak, Daxter, Keira, Mario, and Bentley were watching as the infuriated sorceress slowly descended downward. Calypso, now levitating a few feet above the heroes, commented, "Well, it's obvious that you bunch of misfits know a thing or two about staying alive."

"Comes with being a hero, lady," Daxter called up. "Now why don't ya do us a favor and surrender yourself to the devilishly handsome powers of justice!"

"Don't think so, furball. I may have brought back countless lives, but who's to say I won't take away twice as many next time?" Calypso raised both of her hands towards the still-populated stands not too far off in the racetrack's distance. Charging two purple balls of Mojo in her hands, she joked, "Are you going to beg me to bring them back, too?"

Shooting off both explosive projectiles, Calypso smiled deviously as the two blasts raged through the air, anxious to hit their targets of innocent people…for two seconds, that is. As soon as the evil sorceress shot off the two blasts, Crash spun around on his heel and blasted one Mojo ball of his own.

"Hadouken!" Crash had yelled as one Mojo Blast erupted from his hands and raced through the air after one of Calypso's own Mojo Blasts. Then, almost immediately afterward, Crash mimicked the same motion and yelled, "Kamekameka!"

Yet another blast of Mojo erupted from the bandicoot's hands; both white-colored blasts from Crash shot after the purple-colored ones at great speeds and collided with them, sending all four deadly projectiles on a trajectory into the atmosphere, instead of into the crowded stands of spectators.

Thinking he could salvage another Lethal Weapons-esque one-liner, Crash turned to the floating sorceress and said, "Looks like your priority package of evil never made it to the assigned destination of truth! If you would like to restart the packaging process, then you'll have to wait in the new order line again—and don't forget to pay for _whipping and trampling!"_ (i.e. shipping and handling)

"For the love of God, Crash," Jak started, "SHUT UP!"

Bentley asked irately, "Were you EVEN trying on that one?"

"Really, Crash," Coco said. "That was just awful."

Crash cocked his head and asked, "Really? I thought that was my best one, yet."

"Try working on shorter one-liners, hence the term _one-liner_," Daxter instructed. "Length and delivery are both key."

"SILENCE!" Calypso screeched over the bantering heroes. "I will not have this useless chitchat in my presence!" She cupped her hands to her mouth and hollered, "LINK! CAPTAIN FALCON! Your mistress needs you!"

From where the racetrack's starting line was located, a tall, blue-wearing figure could be seen sprinting over to the heroes and sorceress. Also, from the tall palace the heroes had just infiltrated and been thrown out of, a shorter, green-wearing figure was patiently riding the floating platform down to the racetrack.

Link jumped down from the platform and planted both feet solidly on the ground. Drawing his sword, he made an X-slash movement before twirling it around his hand and pointing it at the heroes. Just then, Captain Falcon arrived on the scene next to Link, fists up in a battle-ready position.

Calypso addressed the newcomers, "Hello again, boys. Help me eradicate this infestation of worms in front of me!"

Calypso flew down and swooped over Goofy's head, causing him to tumble backwards until he landed on his rear. She flew over and grasped Keira by her blue hair. Looking over to the enraged Jak, Calypso asked, "Is this the reason why I couldn't control you? No matter."

Then, in a few swift movements, Calypso picked up Keira by her shirt's collar and threw the aqua-haired girl like a javelin towards her penthouse palace. Jak yelled, "KEIRA!"

Keira screamed as she flew through a glass window located halfway up the building with a crash. Jak breathed heavily as he delivered a death-glare to the sorceress. He growled, _"You…"_

Jak could feel the darkness swirling around inside of him. The force began to swell, causing Jak's skin to turn pale and his eyes to go completely black. Before the Dark Eco swallowed him, however, Daxter's voice told him in a serious tone, "Jak, there's no time for vengeance. We gotta save Keira!"

Jak's features returned to normal as he said, "Yeah, you're right…"

Coco suddenly summoned the bravery to volunteer herself, "I'll go find Keria, you guys keep fighting!"

Jak nodded and said lowly to the bandicootess, "Bring her back."

Coco nodded back and ran towards the direction of the towering palace. She kicked off the ground and, this time, found no difficulty in initiating Mojo Flight.

Calypso noticed the bandicoot girl rocketing towards her estate. Keira wasn't going to be saved that easy, according to the sorceress' plans. In a quick blur, Arden dematerialized from the spot she was floating in and rematerialized in front of the flying Coco. When the sorceress had reappeared, she had done so with a hard knee into Coco's abdomen. Slightly incapacitating the bandicootess, Calypso took the time to say, "Why don't you join my little army of pets…"

"Huh?" was Coco's only breathless response after having the wind knocked out of her.

"Destroy your friends!" Arden commanded, letting her eyes glow.

Straining, Coco suddenly realized she, too, was about to be mind-controlled. But this didn't make sense to her, considering the fact that she was female and preferred the opposite gender, so she asked, "I…I thought you could only…only control men!"

Calypso shrugged her shoulders and said nonchalantly, "Eh, I go both ways."

(Hot.)

Parrying a slash from Link's Master Sword with his father's own blade, Crash took a few seconds to glance up Coco's position near the sorceress. His sister seemed to be withdrawing all efforts to retrieve Keira and was actually floating side by side with Calypso in the air. With a puzzled look, Crash uttered to himself, "Yeah, I knew this would happen one day."

In the air above the racetrack, Calypso called down, "Mar, if you want to see your precious jezebel again, then come and find her inside my estate! Hopefully, you won't be too late."

The sorceress flew back to her palace through the broken window she had thrown Keira into, leaving Coco to float by herself.

Calypso was going to be holding Keira hostage, Link and Captain Falcon were relentlessly attacking him and his allies, and now Coco was also under the sorceress' mind-control. Not to mention that the bandicootess had adept strength, a wide range of knowledge for martial arts, and destructive Eco-like powers, she was probably going to be hard to take down. With a glare, Jak said to himself, "I need to come up with a plan."

Tornado spinning into Captain Falcon, Crash suddenly answered Jak's request. "Don't sweat it, I've got a plan! I'll hold off my little sister, Link, and the Captain-Dude while you take everyone else to go after Calypso."

Goofy had been warding off vicious attacks from the Hylian warrior with his royal shield when he said, "Can ya really handle these folks all by yer lonesome, Crash?"

Crash cracked his knuckles. "Of course, I can! Assuming that they play by the rules and take turns, that is."

Just then, Sonic the Hedgehog skidded to a halt next to the bandicoot. Perplexed, Crash asked, "Sonic? Where did you come from?"

"I saw everything on the TV cameras! I told Tails and Knuckles to tell every spectator at this race to evacuate and go home. So this Calypso chick really is evil, eh?"

"Yeah, she's bad to the bone. And apparently, she digs my sister."

"You have a sister?" Sonic asked.

Before Crash could confirm, Captain Falcon was soaring through the air, preparing to deliver a…well, I'll let him say it.

"Falcon PAWNCH!" Captain Falcon yelled as his fist ignited on fire and dove downward for Crash and Sonic. However, before either hero became the first victims of the Captain's signature attack, Mario arrived on the scene to block the punch with his hands over his head.

After the Captain relinquished his attack and landed on the ground again, Mario declared, "Yeah, you might as well count me in as well, Crash! There ain't no way I'm dealing with that psycho-killing broad."

Smiling, Crash said, "Thanks! Oh, I should probably introduce you two. Mario, Sonic. Sonic, Mario."

Sonic and Mario both gave each other quizzical looks before returning their focus onto the impending battle at hand. After all three heroes got into battle-stance, they watched as the brainwashed Coco landed in between the battle-ready Hylian warrior and Captain Falcon.

Meanwhile, Jak and Daxter had taken Goofy, Bentley, Ratchet, and Clank with them onto the floating platform that led up to the top floor of Calypso's penthouse suite. All six awaiting heroes idly stood by as the platform made its, slow, slow, slow ascent. Speaking about the platform, Daxter suddenly burst out, "Can anyone tell me why these things always move so slow?"

Back in the impending battle's standoff, Crash suddenly looked from Mario, Sonic, Link, and Captain Falcon and realized something. He looked at the readers of this story and shrieked, "Holy, Super Nintendo, Batman!"

The camera suddenly zoomed in on Crash's face as he said in the same manner of a Japanese man with a bad foreign inflection in his accent, "Super Smash-uh Brother-zuh!"

* * *

_Don't be disappointed that Jak didn't go Dark mode. He's got plenty of opportunity to do that in Russia. _

_New one's up tommorow!_


	62. Super Smash Brothers

**Chapter 62: Super Smash Brothers**

In the Twisted Wipeout's white-walled infirmary, Speed Racer lay on the hospital bed, with the life-checker thing flat-lining. His Pops, little brother Spritle, pet monkey Chim Chim, and girlfriend Trixie were all mourning his death inside the infirmary room when the Wipeout-funded doctor had informed them on the loss.

Speed had numerous cuts and burns scattered around his body. Both of his legs had been broken from the explosion, and a large second degree burn had been stained over his chest. With a cut that ran down his left eyebrow, eyelid, and cheek, Speed Racer looked utterly lifeless.

Pops had two tufts of his own middle-aged black hair grasped in his hands as he grieved in a speedy voice, "I knew it! I knew it! I absolutely positively knew this would happen! How could I send my own little boy into a death race? I fail as a father! FAIL, I tell you!"

Chim Chim and Spritle weeped into each other's arms, saddened at the loss of their brother. Trixie sat down on a chair and lamented to herself, "Why, Speed, why? We were supposed to get married and live with each other and our three kids, Rocket, Skids, and Mazda in our dream home!"

Strangely, Speed's wounds began to heal over; his burned tissue reconstructed into healthy skin again, and his cuts and scrapes began closing up. Like an act from God, Speed Racer rose up from the bed into a sitting position and gazed about the room.

"Where am I?" Speed asked for once in a regular tone.

Pops, Spritle, Chim Chim, and Trixie all shrieked, "SPEED!"

* * *

Brian Rae, the iguana janitor guy, entered the racetrack with broom in hand. Apparently, someone hadn't told him that an epic, raging battle was taking place. He saw numerous debris and parts of ships scattered about the track and said, "I might as well get to workin'."

Brian dragged out two trashcans and set them next to a pile of debris. Sweeping up the pile with his broom, Brian narrowly missed the receiving end of Captain Falcon's flying body being thrown through the air.

Captain Falcon stood up and looked around for the feisty little hedgehog. He saw a blur of blue coming at him from the right and threw out his right leg, screaming, "Falcon KICK!"

Captain Falcon's boot collided with Sonic's jawbone, sending the speedy critter backward to the ground. Sonic flipped back upward and ran at the Captain, this time, receiving a knee to the stomach.

Sonic went flying backward once again; Captain Falcon decided to pursue Sonic as the hedgehog flew back. Running along the track's surface, Captain Falcon reeled back his right fist to further increase the damage about to be done.

Sonic thought quickly; he landed on his feet and reeled back his own fist to counter Captain Falcon's attack. Both Captain and hedgehog and threw out their fists, resulting in a clash of knuckles and a great force that pulsated in the air around them

The pulsating force caused Brian Rae's broom to fly out of his hands. He cursed to himself and trotted after it. After reaching the fallen broom, he bent over to pick it up. In the two seconds that he was bent over, Link and Mario had landed on either side of him from seemingly nowhere, and the brainwashed Hylian had made a horizontal slash at Mario, who back-flipped from it and landed on his feet.

The horizontal slash Link made would've cut Brian Rae in half if the iguana wasn't bending over to pick up the broom. After standing straight again, Brian seemed to fail to notice that Link had jumped over him and sprinted after Mario.

Mario spotted the two trashcans Brian Rae had dragged out and removed both the aluminum lids from the tops. Placing them both on his wrists Captain America-style, Mario stood battle-ready and waited for Link to catch up with him.

Link jumped and made a vertical slash at the plumber, who blocked the attack with one of the trash lids. As Link pushed his Master Sword down on Mario's new shield with all his might, Mario seemed unfazed by this when he said, "That all you got, pretty boy?"

Mario pushed Link off and delivered a hard boot to the Hylian's gut. As Link staggered backward, he didn't notice Mario charging up to him and initiate a vertical spin-flip-kick. Vertical spin-flip-kick? That's basically a move where you do a back-flip and kick somebody in the face at the same time.

Mario vertically spin-flip-kicked Link under the chin and sent the warrior flying into the stands. Thanks to Tails and Knuckles, most of the spectators had evacuated the stadium; Link had flown into the concrete stands and empty plastic chairs, making a huge crater as he screamed, "AAAAH!"

Mario laughed and said, "Oh, man! Ya gettin' owned by a low-wage, middle-aged plumber!"

Meanwhile, Crash and Coco were locked in a stare down. Coco said nothing as Crash gave her a cocky look. "Coco, Coco, Coco. You and I both know this fight's already over. Just snap out of it, and we'll both go get some Wumpa Whip smoothies when we get home. I'll even buy 'em this time. Then we can talk all about my weird dreams of the past. How about it?"

Coco continued to wordlessly glare at Crash.

"No?" Crash said. "Fine. Have it your way. Let's fight like angry siblings, then."

He removed his golden biker's jacket and sheathed sword from his back and set them down on the ground. As Coco got into her jujutsu fighting stance, Crash readily got in his own uncoordinated stance. The truth was that Crash was horribly bluffing. He knew he could barely stand a chance against Coco's fighting style, especially when she was ticked off about something. The only thing that gave him an advantage over her was his ability to absorb more pain than she could. As long as he could get a few good hits in, he would always be able to succeed. But now that Coco was looking feral and relentless, things might be a bit more difficult than before.

Hiding his apprehension, Crash beckoned, "Well come on, then!"

Coco began charging up her Mojo as white flames erupted from her clenched fists and feet. The bandicootess gave her brother a seriously ticked look before rocketing upward into the air and then flying around at a blazing speed until she ended up behind Crash, delivering a heavy, flaming punch to his back.

Crash flew forward and skidded on his face. Looking back at Coco, he muttered, "Oh, snap."

He quickly flipped to his feet again and blocked Coco's forthcoming punch with his forearm. Remembering that Coco would usually follow up with another punch from her other fist in past battles, Crash grabbed both her wrists with his hands and presumed to think that he had things under control.

"How d'ya like that!" Crash taunted with a grin.

One thing—well, actually two things—Crash didn't count on was Coco's feet. Given that he and his sister were standing very close to each other, Crash wouldn't have expected to receive a kick to the face at such a close proximity, but he got one anyway.

Coco had adeptly utilized her flexibility to kick Crash hard in the chin, releasing herself from his grip. Dazed, Crash staggered backward for a moment before Coco charged a Mojo Blast in her hands like she were holding a soccer ball over her head and thrust it forward at Crash, who basically ate the attack.

Crash emerged from the small explosion with smoky fur. Looking at Coco with furrowed eyebrows, Crash said, "Now that was just foul."

* * *

Jak, Daxter, Bentley, Goofy, Ratchet, and Clank finally made it to the top floor of Calypso's penthouse suite. The six heroes propelled themselves off of the platform and into the roomy lobby again.

Bentley informed everyone as they made their way out of the lobby and into the hall, "As we were ascending on the platform, I took the time to count each window. Keira and Calypso should be on the seventh floor of this building."

Jak replied, "Alright, let's go!"

Reaching an elevator door, Jak hit the down button and bounded into the elevator with his five allies. As the elevator descended to the chosen floor, Daxter asked no one in particular, "Do ya think Calypso set a trap?"

"Whatever it is, we're definitely springing it," Ratchet responded.

Jak only angrily wished the elevator would move faster. Finally, he heard that welcoming "ding" and ushered himself in the room.

This room was almost completely dark; the lights looked like they had been blown out by fiery blasts. In fact, there seemed to be many things that had been blasted, like fountains, statues, and the walls. Obviously, a scuffle had taken place here. A few live TV cameras were idly floating about the room, looking for something of interest. The only thing lighting the room was the sun's rays through the window Keira had been thrown into. Looking to the right, Jak realized the room went deeper than he expected.

Jak and the others all took a step out of the elevator and walked onto a heightened part of the room that was connected to a short staircase that led downward and deeper into the dark room. Standing at the top of the short staircase, Jak gazed out at the half-flooded room. Water from broken pipes seemed to have flooded the room; it looked almost waist-deep.

"Keira!" Jak called out in the barely lit room. "Where are you?"

A vase with a fern planted in it floated by the staircase. Daxter jumped down on this and called out, "Keira, baby! Just follow the sound of my voice if you don't know where we are!"

Suddenly, a scream came from the deeper section of the room. Jak yelled again, "Keira!"

This time, Keira's voice called back, "Jak, I—I need help!"

"We're coming!" Jak hurried down the stairs and trudged through the waist-deep flood with Ratchet, Clank, and Goofy behind him.

Bentley had stayed on the dry part of the room at the top of the staircase. He told the others, "Sorry, guys. I haven't quite perfected the flotation function of my wheelchair, so I'm going to wait here."

"Hang tight, Bentley," Ratchet said before continuing through the water, which was chest-high to him. "We'll be right back."

As they continued deeper into the room, Jak noticed that the other windows were boarded up shut, the biggest reason why the deeper section was so dark to begin with. They encountered more Wipeout cameras floating around the air and broken decor floating at the surface of the water, like leaves from small trees, discarded paintings, more vases with plants, and broken parts of statues.

"Gawrsh," Goofy started nervously. "There sure is a lot of broken expensive stuff in here."

"It looks as if there was a fight in here," Clank also observed. "I wonder who won."

Daxter snickered, "Looks like we missed a good ol' fashioned cat-fight!"

Jak rolled his eyes at his friend's silly comment. He continued to lead Ratchet, Clank, and Goofy through the flooded room until they reached the opposite end, where a gigantic hole in the wall resided. This hole appeared to have been blasted through from their side.

Suddenly, Keira's voice called again, followed by a shrill scream, "Jak!"

"KEIRA!" Jak called back. He quickly said to his allies, "It sounded like it came from that hole!"

Jak fearlessly led his squad through the hole in the wall, landing in a separate room completely. This room was also flooded, but it appeared to be a bathroom of sorts. Judging by the many stalls, they were in the ladies' room.

Jak drew his Morph Gun and called out again, "Keira, where are you?"

The sound of Keira coughing rang throughout the bathroom before she weakly replied, "Jak, look up at the ceiling…"

Everyone looked up to spot a dark opening in the bathroom's ceiling. This, too, looked like it had been blasted from their side. Jak shouted, "Don't worry, I'm coming!"

Since the ceiling was a bit higher up, Goofy offered, "I'll give ya a boost, Jak!"

Jak nodded and stepped onto the court knight's boosting hands and leapt upwards, grabbing onto the edge of the broken opening in the ceiling. Pulling himself and Daxter up, Jak realized he was in a supposedly closed-off section of the building; this section looked almost like a house's extremely dark attic with wooden support beams scattered everywhere.

With Daxter nervously crouched on his shoulder, Jak readily aimed his Blaster Gun as he slowly treaded forward, eyes darting around for any sign of movement. His own heartbeat was deafening in his ears…or maybe that was Daxter's.

As they walked, they came across a broken pipe, which leaked a small stream of water onto the dusty floor. Jak only shook his head, hoping Keira hadn't sustained nearly as much damage as these rooms had. In fact, if she had sustained any damage at all, Jak was going to make Calypso pay dearly for it.

Daxter noticed a darkened figure sitting against the wall. He got Jak's attention by pulling on his ear, "Jak, look over there!"

Jak peered over at whatever Daxter was talking about. He heard a pained moan come from whatever it was and instantly recognized it as Keira. Why it took a moan to find her, I choose not to know.

"Keira!" Jak whisper-shouted, bounding over to the shadowy body sitting against the wall. Jak got down on one knee and felt around for her, finding her shoulders and shaking her gently. "Keira, are you okay?"

She moaned again before saying, "Jak…I knew you'd come to save me."

Jak asked, "Can you stand?"

"I think so," she feebly replied.

As Jak helped her to her feet, Daxter said, "We've got the goods. Now it's time to get our backsides the heck out of here!"

Right as Jak turned around with Keira in his possession, something suddenly swung like a baseball bat and slammed against the blue-haired girl's face. Horrified, Jak let one protective hand hover over above Keira's fallen body as he searched the dark for the culprit.

"Damn you, Calypso! Come out!"

"Sorry, Jak, I'm not Calypso."

The voice was familiar and warming to Jak; with a ball of Yellow Eco in her hand that partially lit up the dark sector, Keira stood with a grin and a wooden plank in her other hand. She appeared to be breathing hard and had a bruise over her right eyebrow.

"Did ya miss me?" she asked.

Confused out of their minds, Jak and Daxter fumbled glances between the Keira on the floor in pain and the Keira standing in front of him with the wooden plank. Daxter stammered, "Uh…I'd say that this is just like a fun dream of mine, but you never slugged the other Keira across the face."

Jak asked defensively, "What's going on here?"

The Keira with the wooden plank dropped her weapon and leaned forward with her hands on her knees to take a breather. She finally explained, "Jak, it's me. That obvious fake on the floor is Calypso disguised as me. It turns out she's a shape-shifter…"

Jak looked down at the ailing Arden-Keira at his feet, who was whimpering about something. She was still grabbing the part of her face that Keira injured with a blunt object. Turning back into her original body, Calypso vengefully said, "You damaged my face…my beautiful, flawless face…you and your friends will all DIE!"

Calypso stood up and her body began to glow purple. Seeing imminent danger, Keira grabbed a hold of Jak's arm and yelled, "We need to run!"

Jak and Daxter obliged and sprinted after Keira down the attic-like hall, doing their best to get away from the transforming Arden Calypso.

* * *

_Next chapter's up tomorrow morning!_


	63. Wish

_This specific chapter should probably be rated T. You know why, the usual suggestive references, themes, and language._

**Chapter 63: Wish**

Jak, Daxter, and Keira leapt back down into the flooded bathroom, rejoining Ratchet, Clank, and Goofy. Hurriedly, Daxter yelled, "Run away! That chick is _crazy!"_

"Huh?" Ratchet asked.

"Just run!" Keira shouted.

The group of six jumped through the massive hole that led to the first flooded room. Behind them, Calypso was glowing like a fluorescent purple light bulb and steadily floating after the fleeing heroes. Her eyes were completely white and filled with rage at the bleeding wound on her left cheek.

"So…your real name is Jak. And those morons in Russia…they're you're friends, correct? I'll make sure Lusef kills them slowly!"

The heroes finally met up with Bentley in the partially lit room again. Jak tried explaining, "Bentley, it's Calypso, she's on to us!"

"More like dead-determined to kill us!" Ratchet added. "Should we keep running, or should we fight?"

"I don't doubt that using the elevator will be a bad idea," Clank thought out loud. "I suggest we try to hold her off until we come up with a new plan."

"Clank's right," Jak declared. "We have to show her who's boss."

It was then that Calypso emerged from the darker region of the flooded room. Angered beyond sanity, Calypso screamed, "I'LL RIP YOU ALL APART!"

Meanwhile, back in the racetrack, Crash, Coco and the battling Super Smash Brothers halted their fight to glance at one of the TV screens floating nearby. They had a clear view from one of the cameras of the struggle occurring in Calypso's palace. They could see the enraged sorceress floating above the room's water and powering up tremendously.

Crash teased Coco, "Your girlfriend looks ticked!"

Back in the palace, Calypso's voice turned demonically twisted as she yelled, _"Bow down to true power!"_

Suddenly, Calypso's skin pigmentation morphed into a light purplish color, and her body began to grow more monstrous. Her fingers turned into elongated claws, her feet outgrew her boots and ripped them apart with sharp phalanges, her teeth became extended into beast-length, and two large, white feathered wings sprouted from her back. Her once chestnut hair had now become snow white and her green eyes were now a glowing purple. Also, her body had grown and expanded so much that her elegant green dress ripped apart, leaving only two segments to cover her waist and bust line.

Back at the racetrack, Crash had watched the transformation unfold and commented with a relieved grin, "Good thing the waist and bust line of her dress stayed on."

Back in the palace, Calypso, in her Harpy form, gave the heroes an unforgiving look. "Now that you see my monstrous side…prepare to die!"

Daxter joked, "This is your monstrous side? I disagree, your first form was WAY uglier!"

"Damn rodent," Calypso spat. "I'll skin you!"

"I'd like to see you try, gorgeous!" Daxter taunted, smacking his own rear at Calypso.

Seeing as how this was happening on his shoulder, Jak gave the ottsel an annoyed look before asking, "Daxter, what are you doing…?"

"What's it look like? I'm obviously running out of options." Daxter hopped down onto a vase floating above water again. "Oh yeah, and Jak said he'd rather swallow fifty wumpbees than be seduced by you!"

Angered, Arden flapped her wings and flew down at Daxter with her claws out. Jak moved in front of Daxter just in time before she grabbed him; she grappled the blonde hero around the torso and proceeded to burst through the already broken window into the outside world. The afternoon sun was still hot in the sky as Jak struggled to free himself from the harpy's death grip. The Morph Gun was still in his hand, so he used that to strike Calypso in the face with the butt of it.

Drawing blood from Arden's mouth, Jak realized he was still in her grip. Calypso retaliated by digging her claws into Jak's ribs and latching her teeth onto his collar bone.

"AAAAAH!" Jak bellowed in agony. Narrowing his eyes, he gripped his Morph Gun once more and aimed it at the side of Calypso's face. Batting the evil woman across the face again, Jak finally found release and freefell down alongside the palace's outer walls, losing focus. Ratchet and Clank had seen the whole thing from the edge of the window.

The Lombax shouted, "JAK! We've got ya, buddy!"

The Dynamic Duo leapt out the destroyed window and nosedived after Jak. As Clank attached himself to Ratchet's back, Ratchet outstretched his hands for Jak's injured body. Finally grasping a hold of Jak's torso, Ratchet yelled to the tiny bot on his back, "Okay, Clank, now!"

"Can do, Ratchet!" Clank yelled back. The helicopter attachments flipped out from his arm holes and antenna, slowing down their descent.

From seemingly nowhere, Arden flew down and swiped her claws at Ratchet, Clank, and Jak, sending the trio flying through another window of the building. They landed and tumbled through a garden-like room. There were plants of many varieties decorated all around the room's interior.

Jak lazily stood to his feet, clutching his bleeding collar bone. Just then, Calypso exploded from the floor and nearly grabbed Jak again if he hadn't moved out of the way just in time. Arden charged up a Mojo Blast in her clawed hands together and screeched, "DIE, JAK!"

Like lightning, Ratchet stood up and pushed Arden's hands up in the air, causing the Mojo Blast to erupt into the ceiling. The Mojo Blast tore through the multiple floors and ceilings above.

Arden gave Ratchet a foul look. Ratchet uneasily said under his breath, "I'm gonna need a bigger gun…"

Meanwhile, back in the racetrack, Sonic the Hedgehog was running circles around Captain Falcon, making the brainwashed bounty hunter dizzy and dazed. Captain Falcon shook his head and concentrated. Finally, he threw out a heavy kick and wound up pulverizing Sonic in his chest, sending the hedgehog flying across the track.

Because you can't hide from Captain Falcon no matter how blue and speedy you are, Captain Falcon pursued Sonic and threw his fist forward, screaming, "Falcon _PAWNCH!"_

Sonic had been expecting this; he flipped right-side up in the air and suddenly glowed in his golden Super Sonic form. Before the almighty and unstoppable Falcon Punch landed, Sonic seemingly teleported behind the Captain and threw his fist into his back, sending the Falcon Freak into the racetrack's wall. Sonic dashed over to Captain Falcon's fallen body, picked him up by his leg, and threw him upward into the air, where Sonic met him up there to once again pummel him with a series of heavy punches.

Clasping his hands together, Sonic used them to hammer down Captain Falcon back to the ground, but before the Captain crashed into the racetrack like a meteor, Sonic reappeared there to catch Captain Falcon's abdomen on his extended red shoe.

"Looks like you've been demoted, Captain Falcon!" Sonic wittily said.

Mario and Link were currently sprinting towards each other. Before getting too close, they leaped into the air, weapons out and ready. Link had begun a flurry of rapid combos with his Master Sword at Mario; Mario had initiated a spinning top-like technique that involved himself spinning around with the trashcan lids extended outward.

While Link rapidly swung his Master Sword, hoping to slice the plumber up like vegetable salad, Mario adeptly blocked each strike as he spun around like an acrobatic pro. When Link's combo ended, Mario took the time to bang both trash lids on either side of Link's head—this is all taking place in midair, mind you—and kicked the dazed Hylian back into the stadium.

After flipping through the air Yoda-stlye, Mario landed and smiled to himself when Link failed to get back up.

Meanwhile, Crash and Coco were engaged in an arm-lock. They both had their hands tightly gripped around their opponent's shoulders, and their foreheads clashed against each other. With intense expressions, both bandicoots glared at each other, trying to gain the upper hand in strength.

Crash chuckled slightly and asked, "Did you notice this is the first time where you can't talk but I can? In fact, I think I prefer it this way."

Coco's angry expression suddenly dropped into a flat frown.

Crash instantly recognized this look and his eyes went wide and buggy. He said lowly, "Don't do it…don't even think about it—"

Too late. Coco had already delivered a judo-kick to Crash's crotch. The bandicoot crotched over in pain—no pun intended—allowing the brainwashed bandicootess ample time to commence a harsh combo of kicks to Crash's face.

Coco leaned backward on one leg with the other nimbly raised in the air like a true martial artist. Repeatedly, she callously swung her foot back and forth across Crash's face, quaking her brother's vision with each strike from her pink shoe. With a final jump-roundhouse kick combo and a cry of, _"HI-YA,"_ Coco kicked Crash hard in the face with the other foot, sending the bandicoot to the ground.

Sitting up and clutching his agonizing jawbone, Crash muttered, "Alright, no more Mister Nice Bandicoot!"

Coco only cracked a few bones in her neck as a response. Crash leapt up and ran at Coco, fists brandished for round three. He threw a punch, of which Coco ducked under and jumped to throw her knee into Crash's stomach. Coco kept her knee locked in Crash's abdominal region.

While Crash lurched forward in pain, Coco extended her arm past the back of Crash's head and brought down her elbow into the back of his neck. Crash spat blood from his mouth onto the shoulder of Coco's white shirt. The girl seemed unfazed by this, as she continued to wordlessly glare into Crash's pained eyes.

If Crash couldn't absorb pain like he knew he could, this battle would've been over a while ago. It was the only thing that kept him one step ahead of Coco. No, he wasn't going to lose this match.

Initiating his signature tornado-spin move, Crash became an orange blur as Coco unintentionally became swept up with him. Swinging Coco around about six spins per second, Crash began levitating up in the air and finally released her, aiming for the ground.

Coco hit the track with a crash—pun intended—and slowly stood back up, waiting for her vision to go singular again. She angrily looked up at Crash and charged a source of Mojo in her right palm. Closing it into a fist, Coco's hand glowed white, and she used it to punch the ground beneath her. This action caused her entire body to rocket upward after Crash with the force of a rhinoceros.

Crash raised an eyebrow and said, "I gotta try that!"

Since now wasn't the time to experiment, Crash only raised his hands and charged a ball of Mojo in them. Waiting for just the right amount of length between him and his sister, Crash hurled the Mojo ball downward and let it collide with her body.

Coco landed with an explosion on the racetrack. Crash flew back down to the ground, awaiting his sister's next move in a fighting stance. From the smoky crater, Coco jumped up and charged full speed at Crash, who only patiently waited.

Before Coco got too close, Crash made a surprise attack by quickly jabbing out his right foot into her abdomen. This attack caused Coco to soar backwards toward the racetrack's cement wall; before slamming into the wall, Coco deftly flipped and landed sideways on the wall and pushed off again, this time flying full speed at Crash.

According to Crash, NOW was a good time to experiment with Coco's new move. He charged a swell of Mojo in his right fist and watched as his hand glowed with white flames flickering around it. Calmly, he crouched down a bit and waited for Coco's arrival.

"That's right," Crash mumbled.

Coco continued to vengefully fly at Crash, angered beyond her wits. She began growling as she drew closer, "Grrrrr…"

Still crouched down with a glowing fist of fury, Crash mumbled, "Just a little closer…"

As she neared her brother, she soon wished she had chosen a different tactic. Like an orange dragon, Crash sprang up with a cry of, _"Shoryuken!"_

Crash's white-flaming fist collided with Coco's chin in a well-executed uppercut, completely dusting her clocks. In midair and in front of Coco, Crash spun around and initiated one of his new favorite moves: _"Hadouken!"_

The white ball of Mojo collided with Coco's torso and sent her flying backward into the racetrack's wall again, this time, exploding on impact.

Crash wiped sweat from his dome and put his hands on his hips. Breathing hard, he snidely said, "Try not to be so predictable next time."

Back with Jak, Ratchet, and Clank in the garden room, the Lombax was currently unloading shell after shell from his Constructo Shotgun at the flying harpy. Jak was taking cover behind a large urn with a hand still clasped over his bleeding collar bone. The evil harpy had bitten him deeply, and he found it difficult to control the bleeding. If he could get back to Keira, maybe he could use her healing ability to restore himself, but that would put her and the others in danger if he didn't help Ratchet and Clank defeat Arden first.

Ratchet rolled to the side to avoid being clawed in half. Ratchet shot off another round from his shot gun, leaving bullets to riddle Calypso's hands, both of which were shielding her face.

"Arg!" Calypso grumbled in her twisted voice. "Sit still like a good kitty!"

Ratchet continued running around the garden, doing his best to keep her away from Jak. "Clank!" he called through some panting. "Can you think of a way to stop her? The Constructo Shotgun isn't doing squat on her!"

On Ratchet's back in backpack mode, Clank scanned the room with his green glowing eyes. Finally, he noticed a deactivated power switch on the wall and after seeing what it was connected to, Clank told Ratchet, "That power switch on the wall may be our only chance of stopping Calypso!"

Ratchet spotted a yellow, deactivated switch on the distant wall and looked at the thick cable wire snaking from it. The thick black wire had been attached to the ceiling, but since Calypso had unintentionally blasted the ceiling earlier, the cable wire had fallen into the center of the pond in the middle of the garden room.

Getting Clank's drift, Ratchet nodded and set his goal: get Calypso wet…erm, you know, submerged in the pond.

Just then, Calypso swooped down and nearly took Ratchet's head off if he hadn't have ducked down. Ratchet stuck out his tongue and blew a long raspberry at her. "You missed me! What are you, blind?"

"I'll rip out that sharp tongue of yours!" Calypso threatened.

"Gotta at least catch me first!" Ratchet taunted.

The Lombax leapt over a row of flowers and into the pond, which was chest high to him. Sounding rather phony, Ratchet said, "Oh no! I'm trapped in the water! And cats don't like water! Whatever will I do?"

Calypso took the bait and saw an opportunity to kill the incessant nuisance. Swooping down to grasp Ratchet in her claws, Calypso barely noticed the Lombax unlatch the robot from his back and toss him across the room at something.

"What the?" Calypso muttered. However, that last little maneuver from Ratchet didn't hinder her desire to strangle the Lombax. She flew down until her legs became submerged in the pond, standing on the pond's floor. Wrapping one clawed hand around his throat and the other around his unarmored torso, Calypso squeezed the Lombax tightly, making him scream in strained agony.

Clank had made his way to the power switch and jumped up to grab the handle of it. Before pushing up on the lever to activate the broken cable cord, Clank suddenly noticed that Ratchet was being held inside the pond by the demon lady.

"Ratchet!" Clank called out.

Ratchet was currently trying to fight off Calypso with his Omniwrench. Still having the life progressively choked out of him, Ratchet strained to yell, "Just do it, Clank!"

"No, Ratchet, you must escape first!" Clank pled.

Calypso turned around to see what the big deal was. She spotted the tiny bot hanging onto a yellow power switch; seeing the broken wire dangling in the middle of the pond, she put two and two together and laughed out loud. "Go ahead, little tin can! Fry me and your furry friend!"

"Forget about me!" Ratchet shouted from the pond, still struggling in Calypso's grasp.

Clank nervously looked to the lever he was hanging on. His three-fingered hands hesitated to push the switch upward. Finally, Clank dejectedly dropped down to the ground, not going through with the plan. Hanging his head low, he apologized, "I'm sorry, Ratchet. I cannot end your life, as well."

Ratchet blinked a sad look before saying, "It's okay, Clank. I wouldn't be able to do the same to you, either."

"That's sweet," Calypso cooed. "I didn't know robots could have emotions. Who knows, maybe they even feel pain when they die."

Calypso squeezed Ratchet with one last quick compression, shattering a few ribs in the Lombax, and then proceeded to throw him against a far away.

Clank yelped before running over to him, "Ratchet!"

Jak had struggled to his feet and slowly sneaked his way behind a tall tree planted in a garden. His current position was adjacent to the deactivated power box Clank was supposed to pull. Now that Ratchet was out of the water (and possibly unconscious) and Calypso was still standing around in the pond, Jak could hopefully make his way to the power box before she noticed him.

However, that plan seemed to go down the drain when the garden room's elevator door made the "ding" noise and slid open to reveal Keira, Bentley, Goofy, and Daxter.

Calypso levitated out of the pond and looked on at the newcomers; she cheerily greeted them, "Hello, have you all come to die, too? Of course you have!"

"What have you done with Jak, Ratchet, and Clank?" Keira interrogated angrily.

"The furry one's probably already dead, along with the robot in a few minutes. And Jak is just hiding from me. I love it when they play hard to get…"

"Jak?" Daxter asked. "He's standing right there, ya know!"

The ottsel hadn't really seen Jak; he had just pointed off to a random direction to distract the twisted harpy while Bentley attached five sticky bombs to Goofy's shield. Quickly, the royal knight readied his shield and tossed it like a discus at the floating harpy sorceress while she was still distracted.

The shield spun through the air. Calypso turned back around to only notice it coming too late. On impact with her face, the explosives attached to the shield detonated in five loud BOOMS!

"AAAAAH!" Calypso screamed in pain as she fell down from a smoky cloud. She made a pretty big splash when her monster body hit the pond, falling below the surface.

Keira pumped her fist. "Oh, yeah!"

Out of the blue, she noticed Jak limping his way over to a nearby wall and trip over halfway. He was bleeding badly.

"Jak!" Keira shrieked. "What's wrong?"

Jak looked up and gave the aqua-haired girl a pleading look. Pointing to the power box, Jak commanded, "The switch…flip the switch!"

Keira looked at the source of Jak's interest and instantly figured things out.

Meanwhile, Calypso had just weakly risen out of the pond, which was waist deep to her. From the shock of the explosion, the sorceress had involuntarily returned to her human form, and the remaining portions of her dress had slipped off into the water. For the sake of censorship, she covered herself with her arms and furiously glanced around at her surroundings. "That's it—I'm going to torture you all! Starting with the blue-haired one!"

"You mean me?"

Calypso looked around for the source of the girl's voice. Standing next to the power box, Keira and Jak each had a hand clasped on the lever.

Before pushing it up with the blonde hero, Keira indignantly shouted, "End of the road, bitch!"

The broken cord's electrical surge had activated, coursing throughout the pond. The buzzing sound of the sorceress getting totally fibrillated echoed throughout the garden room; Calypso's entire body lit up like a light bulb as her skeleton repeatedly became visibly fluorescent through her skin. With a final gasp, Arden Calypso fell backward into the water, dead.

* * *

_The heroes aren't out of the woods yet. A small group of anarchists have been planning to crash the competition to forcefully get their wish from Calypso. But what will happen when they discover that the sorceress has already met her end? Find out in **Ignition!**_


	64. Ignition

_I've got something to say—if you're one of those jerks, ahem, individuals who find it necessary to scroll down to the bottom page whenever you open up a chapter just to see how long it is, then I'd suggest you quit doing that right now, lest you ruin surprises and spoil important things for yourself. Seriously, it's almost impossible to scroll down without inadvertently reading a portion of the end of the chapter. Just warning you ahead of time._

_Oh yeah, and one more important thing: for those of you Ratchet and Clank fans wondering where exactly on Ratchet and Clank's timeline this story is taking place, it is after A Crack in Time. I know I said earlier that it takes place after Size Matters, but I only said that because of Tools of Destruction's cliffhanger ending leaving me no choice but to backtrack on their timeline._

_If you haven't played the games, you probably have no idea what the heck I'm talking about. But for those that have, just remember that it's after their latest and greatest game, A Crack in Time._

**Chapter 64: Ignition**

Link's eyes slowly opened. He came to realize he was laying inside the core of a crater imbedded into the Grand Prix's stadium. It was then that he also realized he had been brainwashed yet again. He thought to himself, _Not good. I can't even remember a thing since she fully brainwashed me…_

Suddenly, a Timberland boot lightly landed on Link's forehead and pressed down. This boot was connected to a short and stocky plumber's body, which was standing over Link with the other foot firmly planted on the uneven surface of the crater the Hylian was laying in.

Mario asked, "Are ya still under Calypso's whip, blondie?"

Irritated, Link requested under the plumber's boot, "Please remove your footwear from my face."

Helping the Hylian up with one hand, Mario said indifferently, "Glad to have ya back on our side, slick."

Meanwhile, Sonic was sitting next to Captain Falcon's unconscious body on the racetrack. The hedgehog, now in his regular blue form, said to himself sheepishly, "Gee, maybe I overdid it a little…"

Checking in with the others, Sonic yelled to Mario, "Yo, Mario! Has your guy woken up yet?"

"Yeah! He's back to his own heroic self now! Yours?" Mario yelled back.

Sonic glanced at the still dazed Captain and shouted, "Nope, I may have overdone it!" Sonic turned in another direction and called, "Hey, Crash! You take care of that blonde girl, yet?"

"Yeah, and hopefully, she'll be waking up pretty soon!" Crash replied in a shout.

Looming over Coco's unconscious body, Crash nervously watched her for any sign of movement. He hoped he hadn't overdone it and paralyzed her, or worse, but he certainly didn't want her to get back up and resume her deadly jujutsu on him.

Picking up a random crowbar, Crash began poking at Coco's face with the dull side. Subtly, he murmured, "Hey, Coco. You dead?"

Angry golf ball-shaped eyes flew open, glaring at Crash. Coco grappled the crowbar with one hand and tossed it to the side. Shakily standing to her feet, Coco held out a hand toward Crash, charging a white Mojo Blast in her palm.

"Here we go again," Crash tiredly relayed to himself.

However, before the bandicootess shot off the source of Mojo, her ticked off expression gradually softened into a confused and disoriented look. Her eyes bounced from her Mojo-filled hand to her brother, who stood battle-ready a few feet in front of her. Withdrawing the Mojo Blast, she deduced, "Oh, my God…don't tell me I was controlled by Calypso."

"Coco you're back!" Crash briefly celebrated, dropping his guard. "And yes, you were controlled by Calypso! No, actually, you were _seduced_ by her! You totally fell head-over-heels for that lady! Little sis, we're gonna have a _long_ talk about this later…"

Coco quickly defended, "No, I swear, I'm into guys only! She just used her mind-control on me, that's all!"

"Yeah, right," Crash waved off. "And you were too mesmerized on Calypso's sensual powers of seduction to notice you were beating the tar out of me!"

Coco asked, "Did I hurt anyone else?"

"Nope."

"Oh, thank God," Coco sighed in relief.

"Hey!" Crash exclaimed angrily. "I had to borrow two Street Brawler moves to finish you off! Do you know the kind of toll it takes on my Epic Moves Tankometer just to do one of them?"

Coco crossed her arms and commanded, "Spell Tankometer!"

"Um…'T', 'A', 'N'…_kometer!"_ Crash shouted back and also crossed his arms in satisfaction.

Coco changed the subject, "Say, where are the others, anyway?"

Her brother answered, "The last time I saw them, they were inside that huge palace over there, about to start a battle with Calypso. Then, Calypso got all monster-ey and pushed Jak out a window, but that was all I saw until the camera-thing went dead." Crash suddenly snapped his fingers and mater-of-factly said, "Hey, if you're all normal and talking again, that must mean the others defeated Calypso!"

"You're right!" Coco concurred. "We'd better go check on them!"

The two bandicoot siblings levitated up in the air, palace-bound. They flew at a high speed…for three straight seconds before they fell back down to the racetrack with a couple of thuds. Sitting up with a peeved expression, Coco rubbed her backside and said, "Ow! Why in the world did we just fall?"

"Good question," Crash responded, rubbing a few sore spots of his own. "Hm…this might be because we're running low on Mojo. That fight we just had did take a lot out of us."

Coco stood up and closed her eyes, trying to charge up more Mojo from the Earth. However, after realizing she had only charged a small amount that wouldn't even sustain Mojo Flight, she asked, "Whoa, how come I can't charge more Mojo?"

Crash thought for a second and answered, "Aku Aku did tell us that if we were to ever completely run out of juice, then it would be harder to charge it back up again. I'm guessing our best bet is to run the rest of the way to the palace."

Sighing, Coco muttered, "Darn it…oh, well, let's hop to it, I guess."

However, before either bandicoot started jogging, the familiar and cheerful sound of a childish chime played somewhere in the distance behind them. Turning around, both bandicoots squinted to see a white-colored van driving toward them on the racetrack.

"No way…!" Crash started, excitement creeping over his face. "Ice cream!"

"What the heck's an ice cream truck doing out here?" Coco asked. "On a racetrack?"

"Who cares? Let's go get some ice cream!" Crash exclaimed, jogging toward the approaching truck.

Coco protested, "Wait, Crash! We have an important mission to carry out!"

Crash must not have heard because he continued to skip merrily down the racetrack. As he neared closer to the ice cream truck, he noticed a giant, plastic clown head with fake flames was perched on the top of the van. This clown head looked particularly frightening with bloodlust in its glass red eyes and sharp teeth carved in its creepy smile.

Despite the obvious fact that this was no ordinary ice cream truck, Crash continued to jollily skip to his lou as the white truck actually began to accelerate toward the bandicoot at a much higher speed. Cautiously, Coco began, "Um…big bro?"

"C'mon, Coco, there's ice cream!" Crash informed. However, his moment of joy was interrupted by the sound of many different motors buzzing far behind the ice cream truck. Like fourteen speedy missiles, riders on motorbikes exploded onto the scene from the racetrack's distance, passing up the ice cream truck and encircling Crash and Coco.

Nervously, Crash and Coco looked around at the circling motorcycles, each being ridden by a shirtless man with a clown mask and polka-dot shorts in random color patterns. These men all had weapons in one hand, ranging from handguns, Uzis, chain whips, metal bats, and chainsaws. Link, Mario, and Sonic noticed all of this from their remote locations, curious by the development.

The motorcycles made way for the ice cream truck to enter the circle; now that it was up close, the monstrous vehicle didn't have the common appearance of a cute ploy to attract children. This ice cream truck looked extremely armored and made for car-combat, judging by the way it had been suped-up with dual machine guns and giant monster-truck tires.

Holding a long machete, the driver of the truck exited his vehicle. To describe the driver in one word, it would mostly be "nightmare". He was a shirtless, overweight man with somewhat muscular arms and a creepy clown-mask of his own. However, one thing that was strikingly different (and noticeable) about this man's mask was the fact that the top was literally on fire; he looked like a walking torch.

Behind the creepy, smiling mask, the man said in a deep voice, "We're lookin' for a wish-granter named Calypso, and you two are gonna take us to her."

Crash walked up to the clown man and made his order, "One double-scoop strawberry ice cream cone, please!"

Coco quickly informed the clown man, "She's dead!"

Crash thought about it for a second and changed his mind, "You know what, make the top scoop chocolate."

The clown man shook his head with a small chuckle and said, "I really hate liars."

Coco added, "We can't take you anywhere! I swear!"

Crash then added, "Ah, what the heck? I've been a good bandicoot lately. Can you put sprinkles on mine?"

Irritated by the bandicoot's incessant orders of ice cream, the clown man shouted, "Will you shut up?"

Offended, the bandicoot exclaimed, "Whoa! Aren't you guys are supposed to be jolly? And because of your attitude, I think I want to order extra sprink…"

Crash had trailed off midsentence on account of the fact that he had been struck hard across the back of the head with a metal bat from one of the clown minions behind him. The metal clanging sound of steel against skull resounded in the air.

At first, Crash was frozen in whatever expression he had been holding during his last sentence. Then, like a falling timber, the bandicoot's body acquainted itself with the ground.

The clown man laughed and commanded, "Grab the girl. We're gonna need some ransom money, anyway."

Coco screamed as the clown minions forcefully tied her up with a rusty chain, blindfolded her with a rag, and hurled her into the back of the clown leader's ice cream truck. Getting back into the driver's seat, the clown leader shouted, "Let's ride, boys!"

"Yahoo!" one of them hollered, doing donuts and speeding ahead of the pack. The others soon followed after, including the leader-driven ice cream truck.

Meanwhile, Jak, Daxter, Keira, Goofy, Bentley, Ratchet, and Clank had finally reemerged from Calypso's palace, all healed up thanks to Keira's Green Eco channeling and Goofy's magical (and slightly addictive) drinks called Potions. Taking a step down from the floating platform ride, they each watched as a convoy of motorcyclists and an ice cream truck speed past them and drive further down the race track.

Confused, Daxter asked, "Who the heck are they?"

Jak had noticed something as the motorcyclists had passed them; they were all wearing tattered clown masks. Jak uttered, "Oh no…"

"What is it?" Bentley asked.

"Those guys were the clowns that chased us a few days ago!" Jak exclaimed.

Ratchet asked, "What the heck are they doing here?"

"Looking for us, no doubt," Jak quickly answered. "C'mon, we need to regroup with the others!"

They rushed down to the racetrack's starting line, where Sonic, Link, and Mario were standing over an unconscious Crash Bandicoot. Puzzled, Ratchet asked, "What happened? Where's Coco?"

Link urgently answered, "I don't know why, but those goons came over and knocked Crash out with a bat! And then they took Coco hostage inside the back of that giant white machine!"

"_What?"_ Ratchet cried out. "We have to go get her back from those maniacs!"

Jak agreed, "Right! Keira, let's get in the _Assegai_. You're driving!"

Now, one would think a seventeen year-old-girl would probably shy away from such a dangerous task, or at least hesitate to take the chance, or maybe even feel honored to have the opportunity handed to her. But since this was Keira, she only irritably replied, "Well, it's about time!"

Meanwhile, still tied up in chains in the back of the ice cream truck, Coco hazily looked through the thin fibers of the blindfold tightly wrapped around her head. She could make out a box full of dirty cleavers and other deadly weapons bouncing and clamoring around in a corner of the moving truck. She looked around to notice the silhouette of the clown leader driving at the wheel up at the front of the vehicle. What really drew her attention through the rag that obscured her vision was the ominous glow of the man's scalp being on fire.

Curiously, she asked, "Geez, doesn't that hurt like crazy?"

Cackling a bit, the clown man replied high-spiritedly, "Every day of my life!"

Sitting in the backseat of the _Assegai_ while Keira drove, Jak and Daxter readily eyed the convoy of motorcycles as they made their steady approach for them. Seeing as how the _Assegai _was built for speed, the trio had no problem catching up with the clowns.

Backseat-driving, Daxter complained, "Can't ya keep the car steady? You didn't even bother to adjust your mirrors! And for the love of the Precursors, keep both of your hands on the wheel!"

Surprisingly, Keira ignored the ottsel's incessant complaints and remarked to Jak, "Now I see why you like driving this thing so much! She handles so smoothly!"

"We'll talk about that later!" Jak said sternly. "I need you to get us close enough so that I can take out the ones on the motorcycles!"

"Roger that, Jak!" Keira obliged, pressing harder on the gas pedal. After getting a tad bit closer to the rearmost drivers of the clown-convoy, Keira asked, "After you take out the guys on the motorcycles, what are you gonna do about the ice cream truck?"

Taking out his gun, Jak answered, "That's what we have Ratchet for!"

Indeed, Ratchet was standing on the outside of the ship, doing his best to keep his balance on the right wing of the _Assegai._ With Clank strapped on his back and the Constructo Bomb Glove readied on his right hand, Ratchet patiently brandished a beeping, tangerine-sized bomb in his hand.

He threw he bomb forward at an unsuspecting clown rider in the rear of the pack; the result was an explosion that painfully took out four riders at once, now alerting the others of the heroes' presence. The debris from the four motorbikes showered past the _Assegai_ as Keira made to drive alongside the motorcycle pack, keeping her speed low to match the clowns'.

With the butt of his Morph Gun, Jak broke a portion of the cockpit's glass, bubble-like windshield to make a hole large enough to fit his Blaster Mod through. Situating his gun, Jak took aim of the angry bikers to the right of the Assegai and fired multiple shots, scoring one in a clown-biker's leg and another in somebody else's front wheel. Jak and Daxter smirked at the chaos.

Meanwhile, Ratchet had switched weapons and was now using his trusty Plasma Striker, which was a crossbow-shaped weapon with incredible range and perforation, meaning it was a sniper rifle type that could adeptly blast holes through multiple enemies in one shot. He aimed for a biker's active motor and fired, achieving his target and immediately blowing up the vehicle.

Back in the ice cream truck, the clown leader peered into his rearview mirror and spotted the _Assegai_ making its steady approach toward him, alongside the convoy behind him. Growling a bit, he muttered under his breath, "Looks like we've got some gremlins…"

"Those gremlins are my friends!" Coco called from the back.

"Then let's see how much they like eating lead!" he retorted.

"Yeah, whatever," Coco mumbled, struggling to worm free from the chains. As she did so, she accidentally kicked a nearby shelf, causing a heavy box full of actual ice cream to fall down and hit her over the forehead. Woozily, she laid her head down on the floor and drifted away into La-La-Land.

Back on the outside, a motorcyclist had drawn a pistol and began firing at Ratchet and the Assegai, narrowly missing the Lombax but pelting the bulky vehicle with bullets. One bullet pierced the windshield and nearly riddled Keira, making her scream and say, "Do something about that gunner, Jak!"

"On it!" Jak replied. Taking aim again, he shot off three rounds from his Blaster, the last one hitting the biker in the back and sending him off his ride. Jak cried in victory, "Gotcha!"

Ratchet ducked down to avoid a chain whip being swung at him by an adjacent rider. After standing back up, he saw that said rider had already been shot down by Jak; now, there were only three more motorcyclists flanking the ice cream truck.

Looking down the sight of his Plasma Striker, Ratchet yelled, "Hold on, Coco, I'm coming!"

The Lombax shot off two piercing pellets, both of which landed in two of the drivers' shirtless torsos with expert precision. The last clown-rider wielded a chainsaw and twirled it above his head like a lasso, dangerously eyeing Ratchet and Clank with hatred through the mask. Since there was quite a bit of distance between him and the duo, it seemed apparent that the clown man intended to throw the chainsaw, which is something Ratchet was not looking forward to.

Ratchet threw up his hands and tried negotiating, "Whoa, easy, partner! We can talk things—"

"DIE!" the clown-rider yelled before chucking the buzzing power tool at the duo like a Frisbee.

"Look out for the chainsaw!" Ratchet yelled, alerting Keira of the flying chainsaw.

"I _see_ it!" Keira yelled back.

Keira smoothly swerved out of the chainsaw's path, letting it hit the ground and fall out of sight. Jak made quick work of the last clown-minion, shooting him in the side of the head. (Boy, this story is _pretty_ violent for a so-called edited version.) Then, the aqua-haired pilot began drifting on her own collision-course toward the ice cream truck.

The flame-headed clown-driver noticed this and began veering into the approaching _Assegai_, resulting in a sideways collision between the two vehicles. Ratchet used this collision to quickly leap onto the roof of the ice cream truck while it was in close proximity.

The driver of the ice cream truck gave an annoyed grunt before shifting the vehicle into neutral and popping out of the window with a double-barreled shotgun in-hand. Turning around, he aimed at the edge of the roof and shouted, "Get down from there! Don't make me slam on the brakes!"

"Sorry," Ratchet's voice called back down, "but I've got a girl to save! And if you do, I've got this ugly clown head to hold onto for leverage!"

The Lombax drew his Omniwrench and jammed it into the roof, tearing a sizeable hole. Inside, he saw Coco tied up and laying on the floor, looking defenseless. He called her name, "Coco! Are you okay?"

Coco's response never came; Needles Kane's body had left the driver's seat and now stood over Coco with his shotgun aimed at the hole torn in the roof. Without a second's hesitation, Needles blasted the hole, barely giving Ratchet time to roll over on the roof and dodge the incoming barrage.

Clank's muffled voice beneath Ratchet said, "Uh, Ratchet? The truck is going to crash!"

Ratchet rolled to his belly and noticed that the ice cream truck was indeed headed for the racetrack's wall. He sighed and exasperatedly said, "Can this day get any worse?"

Suddenly, a blue blur raced to the back of Sweet Tooth's truck and pounded the doors open with a mighty, white-gloved fist. Next, it proceeded to hop inside and kick the unsuspecting clown in the face, cracking the mask in half and revealing a disturbingly burned and scarred face.

While Needles toppled backward, the blur you might have guessed to be Sonic the Hedgehog picked up Coco's unconscious body and swiftly leapt back out of the ice cream truck onto the racetrack.

Dumbfounded, Ratchet shrugged to himself and did the same from the truck's rooftop before the vehicle collided with the track's wall. He and Clank both landed and separately tumbled a bit, rolling to a jumbled halt. Out of frustration, Ratchet summoned his Constructo Bomb Glove again and chucked a single bomb at the already-totaled ice cream truck, exploding it on contact. He yelled to no one in particular, "Dang it! We almost had her!"

Sonic gently put down Coco and casually asked, "What's up?"

"You! That's what's up!" Ratchet answered accusingly. "Clank and I were doing just fine until you decided to show up!"

Mildly confused, Sonic asked in the same casual manner, "What do you mean? I saved her."

"No, you came in and stole my thunder!" Ratchet retorted. "That would've been the _rescue of the century_ if you hadn't gotten involved!"

Sonic scratched his head in thought. "Well…if I hadn't shown up, you guys would've crashed. And I did this to save Crash's girlfriend."

Crossing his arms, Ratchet snobbishly replied, "Too bad that's not Crash's girlfriend, genius!"

"Really?" Sonic looked down at Coco again and commented, "Well, she's kinda pretty, wouldn't you say?"

"Hey!" Ratchet exclaimed. "Quit ogling at her!"

Sonic rolled his eyes and waved an uncaring hand at the temperamental Lombax. "Calm down, I was just kiddin' around. From all this yelling, I'd think she was YOUR girlfriend, _but of course…"_ Sonic injected those last three words with smart-alecky cheekiness.

"What are you trying to say? That I can't get a girl like her?" Ratchet accused angrily.

Suddenly, the sound of somebody clearing his throat behind Ratchet caught his attention. It was Jak, standing next to Clank, Keira, and Daxter, giving the peeved Lombax an impatient look. Clank had spoken up for the others, "Ratchet, we have important business in Russia to attend to."

Sonic repeated, "Russia, eh? Well, I've got to take off, too. Give my regards to Crash for me, will ya Wretched?"

After Ratchet had repeatedly reminded the cheeky hedgehog that his name was not pronounced that way, the heroes and Sonic went separate ways. Jak, Daxter, Keira, a slowly waking Coco, Ratchet, and Clank all met up with Goofy, Bentley, Mario, Link, and the now conscious Crash Bandicoot. Now that the heroes were gathered together, they had to…wait, what was their next step, again?

After an awkward pause, Jak finally stated, "Um…I think we're missing a precursor."

Daxter began, "Ah, cripes, who's got that general guy's number?"

"No need, sergeant!" said a militant and commanding voice from above. General Eurathaccus slowly descended to the ground and saluted a hand to his navy hat. "At ease, soldiers!"

"General Eurathaccus!" Bentley addressed. "We've defeated Calypso and we need immediate extraction to Russia!"

"Sir, yes, sir!" The elderly precursor saluted and obliged. "To Russia!"

* * *

_The reason why I took so long to update? Two words and a number…_

_Dead. Space. 2. Oh, and the fact that gave my computer viruses didn't help either. Seriously, you know how this site will redirect you to one of those annoying ads? Well, it redirected me to a broken website that repeatedly loaded my browser with nasty viruses. It's all fixed, now though._

_Oh, and here's a late bio, courtesy of me since I made you guys wait so long._

Harpy Calypso

**Age:** ?  
**Gender:** Female  
**Species:** Harpy Monster

This is the form that Calypso takes when her true power has been unleashed. Her slender frame enlarges, sharp nails shoot from her fingertips and feet, and her skin turns a sickly light purplish color. Most noticeable, though, is her white-feathered, angelic wings, but those seem to contradict her overall brute personality. Speaking of contradictions, her monstrous second form is only a complete opposite from her regular appearance on the surface; she's still the evil, twisted sorceress she's always been. Calypso first successfully achieved this form under rigorous training with Draksin Mefisto, where she also met Reiden Long and Dr. Mavo. Harpy Calypso is an O.C. of _CadeXHybrid._

_Seriously, though, Dead Space 2 is amazing._


	65. Under the Influence

_Remember that warning about not skipping to the bottom of the page? I mean it…_

**Chapter 65: Under the Influence**

Sometime in the near future…about seven months after the last intermission… (Remember when Coco was telling Crash about her man problems, and then Crash was trying to come up with a name for little junior? Yeah, that one.)

She raced home as fast as her two-year-old legs could carry her. Her blue skirt fluttered around as she rapidly skipped over puddles in Wumpa Island's ground. The orange sun set from the vivacious spit of land, indicating the day was reaching its end.

The small, black-haired girl wore a worried expression, thinking to herself, _Hold on, dad, please wait for me…_

Reaching the top of the waterfall which overlooked the Bandicoot's tree-house, the girl then did something any toddler would call stupid, dumb, dangerous, or all of the above: she leapt over. Strangely, her body had flown clean over the edge of the pond below; rather gracefully, she landed on the grass on all fours and quickly snapped back up to sprint to the tree-house.

Speaking of the tree-house, there must have been a special occasion going on inside and outside of it; there were many, many, many various characters sitting around the front lawn with solemn looks on their faces. The house's front door was wide open, probably where the girl's family was.

The little girl stopped running next to a blonde bandicootess holding a green haired one-year-old baby in her arms. Getting her attention, the girl asked her, "Aunt Coco, is my daddy okay?"

Coco almost looked like she was on the brink of tears. Using the hand that wasn't holding her baby, Coco wiped a persistent tear from her eye and responded sadly, "So far, he's still in pain."

The little, black-haired girl looked around at all the other people solemnly standing around her front lawn. To list them all in order according to who is adjacent to whom, it would go as the following:

There were Mario, Peaches, Luigi, Daisy, Yoshi, Frogger, Rayman, Ly, Spyro, Cynder, Sparx, Hunter, Mr. and Mrs. Pacman, Sonic, Tails, Amy, Silver, Blaze, Knuckles, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, Sly Cooper, Bentley, Penelope (Bentley's girlfriend), Murray, Dingodile, and Koala Kong. There were also a few unfamiliar faces, all of whom must be original characters.

These aforementioned original characters consisted of a lion man with wavy brown hair for a mane, a short squirrel boy, and a Chinese human man who…wait, this guy is Reiden Long. With a wicked scar on his left eyelid, Reiden also wore the same solemn and sad expression everyone else at the "party" seemed to be wearing.

The small squirrel boy looked to be about four or five years old. In his yellow vest and blue pants, he cheerlessly stood next the muscular lion man, who was none other than the bully, Prince Nathan, from Crash's dreams. Nathan was wearing an all brown outfit that consisted of a tank-top and baggy jean pants; he idly sat on a boulder with a solidly intense look, staring off into the nearby ocean.

The little girl didn't waste any more time looking at everyone. She quickly darted inside the Bandicoot home, took a left to reach the living room, and stopped dead in her tracks at the sight. In between a thin mattress and some bed sheets, Crash lay weakly on the ground. Crunch and a black-haired woman were knelt over Crash on either side of him.

"Daddy!" the girl cried.

The woman looked up with teary green eyes at the toddler. Crunch looked up as well, giving the girl a hopeless smile. He said hesitantly, "Hey, kid…"

Uneasily walking over to the woman and Crunch, the girl asked, "Mommy…is he…?"

The black-haired woman's mouth quivered as tears fell down her face. Stricken with sorrow, she told her daughter, "Cristi…he's…" More tears streamed as she shook her head sideways and said, "H-he's not going to get better."

The little girl, called Cristi, began to tear up as well. Taking her place next to her mother, Cristi looked down at her ailing father. The bandicoot was taking slow, heavy breaths, and his eyes were loosely shut. Crash was sweating badly, probably the reason why a cold, wet rag had been placed on his forehead. Cristi asked, "Is it still his heart?"

"I…" Cristi's mother stumbled.

"It's okay, Naomi, I'll handle this" Crunch interjected, deciding he should take this question. "Yeah, your dad's heart is burning up. Doctors don't know why, but it is."

Naomi mustered the strength to feebly say, "He got this disease from that planet he was on…"

Suddenly, Crash coughed, and his sunken green eyes dwindled awake. Looking around at the three, he greeted faintly, "Hey, guys."

Cristi buried her teary face into Crash's chest. "Dad…"

"Crash…" Naomi whimpered, holding a hand to his cheek.

"Hey, babe." After wincing a little from his internal pain, Crash requested, "I want to be with everyone else, too." Crash drifted back to a slight unconsciousness.

"What…?" Naomi beckoned.

Crunch spoke up, "He wants to go outside."

Outside of the Bandicoot home, where the herd of heroes and characters were waiting, Crunch emerged through the tree-house's threshold, carefully holding the mattress Crash was laying on. Naomi and Cristi soon followed after him. Getting everyone's attention, Crunch announced, "He doesn't have much time left…"

Setting the dying bandicoot and his mattress down on the grass, Crunch sadly watched as most of the others gathered around Crash. The only one who remained at his post was Nathan. The lion man didn't even look in Crash's direction.

Crash suddenly coughed, awakening himself again. He glanced at everyone around him, smiling through the pain he was feeling. "With all of you beside me…even the people who were once my enemies…"

Nathan's expression suddenly turned less tense.

"…I feel so alive."

The color drained from Crash's eyes as his chest deflated.

Coco's young son looked a bit confused by all the melancholy. Sitting on his mother's arm, he watched through the green strands of hair dangling over his face as his mother cried silently to herself. The hair strands were pushed down over his face from the same black, woolly beanie hat Coco had given him seven months ago. However, there was something different about his hat. Sown in green bubble letters, the front of his beanie hat read the name "Cade."

* * *

Sora asked one final question as he and the others continued their journey up the mountain, "Okay, so how long ago did you guys seal away Draksin and his friends?"

Orphco recalled, "Hm…it was seventeen Earth years ago, right here on this planet. It was at the peak of their power when they decided to come out of hiding and release their dark rage."

Glen interjected, "But me, Orphy, Jeycko, Jeycko's dad, and a couple of others came from the Twilight Realm and totally saved the Earth from total destruction just by fusing our powers together and opening a super huge rift that sucked Draksin and his four buddies into the Core of Oblivion! It was awesome!"

Sora chuckled at the orange haired precursor's energetic storytelling. He suddenly stopped laughing when Draksin's voice faded in his head again:

"Stop moving. You all have reached you destination. Look inside the nearby cave to your right."

Sora brought up a hand. Commandingly, he said, "Guys, stop. We're here."

Bringing their attention to a nearby cave situated against the mountainside, Sora led the way through the mouth, where Orphco, Glen, Gladdus, even Aku Aku all seemed to hit an invisible brick wall.

"What the?" Gladdus sputtered, rubbing the sore spot on her forehead.

Aku Aku furrowed his brow as he struggled to say, "I…I can't seem to move any further. How can this be?"

While the other heroes had effortlessly walked inside the cave, the precursors and witchdoctor mask seemed to be stuck on the outside. "What's going on?" Murray asked amid the confusion.

Orphco sadly replied, "I'm sorry, heroes, but this seems to be the work of more Oni-Stone shards. We cannot go any further."

Sly cracked, "Wow, what a jip."

"Don't worry," Sora assured. "We'll be done with Mavo before you know it."

Gladdus asked, "What if Draksin's in there, too?"

Sora pressed a thumb to his chest and fervently replied, "Then _I'll be done with him_ before you know it."

Bidding their farewells, the heroes pressed on deeper into the tunnel. Kairi caught up with Sora and muttered to him, "You sound sure of yourself."

"What other choice do I have?" Sora asked. "I need to get that creep out of my head once and for all."

The cave's interior grew darker and darker until Donald cast a light spell, illuminating the tip of his Save the Queen wand so that everyone could see their way. Eventually, they all reached a large metal door that stood at around eight feet tall.

Cracking his knuckles, The Murray sighed and said, "Well, you know what they say, 'When a door closes, bust it back open again'."

In three quick jabs, the metal door was loosely bent forward, allowing full access into the dark lab. Sora coaxed, "Let's move, people."

Riku insolently replied, "Okay, _Jak."_

The heroes stepped into the dark lab, going by Donald's small, lit wand for light. Meanwhile, Dr. Mavo was standing on the other side of the dark lab with his hands behind his back, eyeing each of the green figures that nervously stepped through the broken threshold. The heroes looked green to him because of the current night-vision setting his multi-purpose goggles were on.

Sounding like he was on the cusp of insanity, Mavo silently chuckled to himself, "Heh, heh…they forgot to knock."

The demonic voice in his head told him, "Lusef…how much longer must I wait?"

Mavo chuckled again and said, "You will have your fun. First, I must give them the substance. Then, I shall turn things over to you so you may handle them however you please."

Mavo brought both hands in front of him, both of which were wearing a strange and medieval apparatus. They appeared to be gloves of sorts; each finger and each thumb had one syringe with glowing green fluid affixed to it, both looking like gloves with elongated, sharp claws.

He eyed the figures walking down the short stairway one last time before he said, "It's time to face your fears, heroes…"

Sora, Kairi, Donald, Sly, Riku, and Murray all reached the bottom of the short stairway, touching down to the main floor of the lab.

"It's so creepy and quiet in here…" Kairi commented.

"Where do ya think Mavo is?" Sly asked.

Donald began, "I don't know, but…OW!"

Donald had dropped his wand and the light faded out, leaving the heroes in complete darkness.

"What is it, Donald?" Sora asked fearfully, eyes darting around the darkness for the duck.

"It felt like something poked me!" the duck mage replied in the dark, rubbing his feathery bottom.

"Donald, where are you?" Sly asked, groping around. Grabbing a hold of something, Sly said, "Gotcha!"

"Yeah, that ain't no duck," Kairi responded with an annoyed tone.

"Oh…my apologies, Miss Kai—OW! Sunova—that hurt!"

Murray asked, "Sly? Are you alright? Don't tell me something got you, too!"

"Yee-ouch!" Kairi cried. "And me, too!"

Panicking, Murray stumbled through the dark, "Oh, no! The Guru never prepared me for something like—OW! What the hay?"

"Stay close together, guys!" Sora tried ordering, but soon found something particularly sharp pricking the bend of his leg. Strangely, it felt like that of a booster shot. Rubbing his leg, Sora said, "Geez, that smarts!"

"Holy moley!" exclaimed Riku's voice. He must have also been pricked. "Who the heck is doing this?"

Suddenly, the laboratory's lights flickered on dimly, revealing Dr. Mavo casually walking past the ailing heroes in his lab coat. Reaching his large, deactivated computer, he turned around to face everyone and pleasantly greeted, "Why, hello heroes of the universe! So glad you all could make it!"

"You must be Mavo!" Sora deduced, drawing his Ultima Keyblade and pointing it at the scientist.

"Cheers," was Mavo's only reply.

Angrily, Riku interrogated, "Was that you who was pricking us a second ago?"

"Yes, of course," Mavo confirmed. "Allow me to explain."

Mavo showed the heroes his glove-like apparatus, where six of the ten syringes were now emptied; all five on one hand were empty while only the syringe attached to the thumb was drained from the second glove.

"What…what is that…?" Sly slurred, feeling his breathing rate go up.

"This, my furry little friend, is a toxin. I injected all six of you with one full dose!"

"WHAT?" Donald suddenly screamed in terror. "What have you done to us?"

Cackling a bit to himself, Dr. Mavo informed each hero, "I developed the toxin myself. I first isolated the fear hormone here in my lab a few hundred years ago before Draksin found me. I reproduced that hormone and augmented the delirium factor that causes us to have nightmares."

Murray felt his vision going in and out. He tried focusing in on Dr. Mavo, but he kept splitting into two separate doctors. The hippopotamus dropped to his hands and knees and breathed hard against the ground. "What's…what's happening to me?"

Mavo pointed to a burgundy figure chained on the adjacent wall by the wrists and said, "You'll see that you're bandicoot friend, Crunch, has been trapped inside his own nightmares for twenty four hours now. He's on his sixth dose."

Crunch was shakily sitting against the laboratory's wall with shackles around his wrists and ankles, muttering something incoherent under his breath and staring off into space with a deranged, haunted expression.

Panting heavily, Riku kneeled down on a knee and clutched a hand over his restless heart. He had nothing to be afraid of. He wasn't scared of the darkness or the light, or anything in between, but why was he so scared now? Was the toxin working already? Or was he scared of seeing what he was really afraid of? Riku snuck a look over at Sora, who was currently holding Kairi closely as they both crouched down from their legs' weakness. Quickly, Riku looked back to the floor in shame as he realized his darkest fear.

Mavo finished, "You all are about to experience your most grotesque fears. The only thing different is that I will be apart of them!"

Sly Cooper slipped down and lay on his side in agony as repressed memories flooded into his mind. How he hated these memories…

With scorn, Sly struggled to remark, "I…I guess someone was never hugged as a child…"

Removing his goggles to reveal his calm blue eyes, Mavo calmly and responded, "You're right. My parents were too busy hitting me every ten minutes."

All six heroes shared weird looks with each other after that last comment.

Pocketing his goggles and looking up to the ceiling, Lusef Mavo spread his arms welcomingly and coaxed, "It's your turn, demon…"

Instantly, as if the demon had been waiting beyond the threshold, Mavo's body underwent its metamorphosis in the blink of an eye; his skin had gone a sickly gray color, short horns emerged from his forehead, his chest muscles had bulged up and ripped his shirt down the front, and a sinister gray blade-arm had replaced the construction of his right hand while the other had simply grown larger nails and in size.

With his now threatening blue eyes, Demon Mavo shouted, "Welcome to misery!"

Kairi began to drift off, her head hanging loosely in Sora's arms. Sora lazily tried to shake her awake as the toxin's effects began to sedate him as well. Shaking his head, Sora was determined to remain conscious. He wouldn't let Mavo take him or anyone else.

Speaking of the doctor, he was making his slow approach toward Riku's kneeling, panting body. He stood tall over the silver-haired teen with his claw-arm raised high over his head, ready to strike the boy down.

Sora shouted, "Riku, move!"

Riku had looked up too late; Mavo had swung his blade arm down diagonally, slashing Riku's throat and spattering a portion of the nearby wall with blood.

As the Riku's head twisted in an unnatural direction and fell to the ground on his side, Sora stared at him in disbelief, the violent affair repeating over and over again in his head. After everything had finally caught up with him, Sora wrathfully shot up to his feet and ran at the bloodthirsty doctor, Ultima Weapon blazing.

"I'll kill you!" Sora promised as he ran forward, leaving Kairi behind. Suddenly, his entire world went black as all he could hear was the deafening laughter of Dr. Mavo swallowing him up.

Sora had the sudden sensation of falling; he emerged through the bottom of some black clouds and plummeted down to a nearly destroyed island below him. Screaming to his descent, Sora harshly hit the unforgiving sand below him. Hazily, he stood up and looked forward to see Kairi standing two feet before him, facing the opposite direction.

"Kairi…?" Sora woozily asked, taking a step toward her.

A black mist from the sky suddenly came down and engulfed the princess' entire body, causing her to scream loudly in what can only be described as torture.

Sora made to reach forward into the mist, but two chains shot out from the sandy landscape behind him and had grappled around both of his wrists and pulled him back. With no way to reach her, Sora called out her name, "Kairi!"

The black mist gradually began to take shape; ultimately, Draksin stood before Sora where Kairi once stood. Facing Sora with blood smeared over the corners of his mouth, the Dark One quickly greeted, "Hello, Sora."

Tugging on the binding chains around his wrists, Sora furiously derided, "Do you always pick on the girls first? You're a real lowlife!"

Draksin scoffed at the boy's brashness. "That's no way to talk to the only person who can get you out of this silly nightmare."

Changing his tune, Sora cocked his head to the side and stumbled, "Huh?"

Draksin continued, "Sora, I'm going to act as a catalyst in your psyche and speed up the effects of Mavo's childish little toxin. Then, when you wake, I want you to really harm Lusef. Show that loser the power of the Keyblade."

The chains holding Sora back suddenly unshackled themselves from his wrists and snaked back into the beach's sand. Rubbing his wrists, Sora quizzically looked up into Draksin's acid yellow eyes and asked, "I don't understand…why are you helping me?"

Draksin crossed his arms and turned his back on Sora. Simply, he stated, "I hate kiss-ups like him. You can never really trust them. They spend years winning your trust and catering to you so they can pull some mutiny trash and stab you in the back one day."

Draksin turned back around and said with a frown, "And there's no way a Keyblade Master should be so handicapped in a battle that he can't even escape his own mind. Go show that reject who's boss, Sora. Then, it'll be you and me."

With a hardened expression, Sora nodded and felt his entire surroundings light up in a slow flash, drowning out the dark image of Draksin completely.

* * *

_Me again, with one more bio for you dudes…_

Demon Mavo

**Age: **?  
**Gender: **Male  
**Species: **Demon

Demon Mavo has been plaguing Lusef Mavo's mind since he was a child. Often times, Lusef would suffer so severely from his split personality, that he would act out in ways most frightening to other people. It's because of Demon Mavo that Lusef can't remember how his parents were brutally murdered with a cleaver and that he had to flee to America to escape the law. Over time, the demon side of Mavo began to change in appearance whenever the scientist had his little episodes. After Draksin saved Lusef from being killed by a mob, he began to teach the scientist how to further separate himself from his demon side, in hopes of developing a dangerous monster that could think on its own. Demon Mavo is an original character of _CadeXHybrid._

_When I think of Demon Mavo talking, I hear Mark Hamil's voice. (Mark does a lot of voice-acting.) For those that don't know, Mark Hamil is the man behind the Joker's voice in the original animated Batman TV series and in Batman Arkham Asylum._

_Oh, and another reason why I took so long to update is 'cuz I had some relationship problems. Yep, it was like a soap opera for awhile…_

_On the next chapter, the showdown begins! Sora and Mavo! But even if our hero wins, how will he save his trapped allies from their own hallucinations?_


	66. We're Down With the Sickness

**Chapter 66: Let's Get Down With the Sickness**

Demon Mavo's entire body was emanating a dark blaze; the black fires danced about his silhouette in an entrancing way. With his face curled into a demented smile, Mavo stood before the hallucinating heroes, brandishing his right claw-arm at each of them.

With his twisted smile, Mavo said to them, "Your terror dominates the air…I can feel it flowing into me, giving me power!"

After Sora had hallucinated and stood up to strike Mavo down, his mind had fallen into a dark abyss along with the other heroes in the room. He had stopped running and fallen backwards on the floor, where he seemed to be having trouble standing again. Still lying on his back, Sora had erratically screamed for someone to "give her back" and then oddly became calm.

Donald had dropped down to his belly, nervously ruffling the feathers on his head with his hands. He kept his eyes wide open, darting them around at imaginary insects like a lunatic. Kairi was doing much of the same, except she was sitting up, manically kicking out at invisible objects attempting to grab her. Sly Cooper was cowering to himself in a crouched position; he had his face buried in his lap, muffling the horrible screams of terror. Next to Sly, Murray was insanely scratching at the wall, pleading for someone to let him out of whatever place he believed he was trapped in.

Riku, on the other hand, was still fighting the toxin inside him. Still crept over on his hands and knees, Riku panted heavily as his vision repeatedly changed his environment into a burning island and then back to the twisted doctor's laboratory. Scrunching his hand into a fist against the waxy floor, he muttered curses to himself underneath his silver curtain-like hair. Finally, the strength gave out in his arms, and he fell face-first onto the floor, still breathing hard and staring off in the distance.

Mavo casually strolled over to the sick heroes with vigor in his stride. He stopped in front of the whimpering Kairi and proceeded to lift her up in the air by the front of her shirt with his normal left hand. With her feet dangling in front of his knees, Mavo said in his new and warped voice, "Ah, such a pretty little princess. How about we start the suffering with you?"

In Kairi's mind, she believed something tentacle-like had shot from the dark, gaping void in front of her and grabbed her by the shirt, roughly lifting her up. From the dark void, she had heard the doctor's proposal of starting the torment with her, and she instantly began screaming.

Back in the real world, Demon Mavo laughed to himself and informed Kairi, "The more you scream the stronger I become!" Mavo readied his claw-arm against the ailing princess' abdomen.

Just then, Sora's psyche had finally returned to a functioning state, thanks to Draksin's intervention. Now realizing he was back in the dim laboratory, Sora jolted up to a sitting position at the sound of someone screaming. He looked over to find Mavo had Kairi up in the air by the neck of her shirt and was preparing to impale her.

"Mavo!"

Said doctor turned around to see that Sora was standing up in a battle-ready stance with his Keyblade drawn. Dropping the princess to the floor, Mavo gave Sora a puzzled look before asking, "What are you doing? You're supposed to be losing your mind!"

"Turns out your buddy Draksin doesn't like you that much!" Sora replied with a smirk.

"What?" Mavo exclaimed, confused.

"He wants you exterminated as much as I do," Sora explained. "And since I don't take orders from my enemies, I'm only going to do this because it's my duty to protect my friends!"

Mavo began to seemingly monologue to himself, "So…my liege has double-crossed us. After all that we've done for him…We'll make him pay for this!"

Suddenly, Dr. Mavo's black flame-like aura exploded all around his body, augmenting his dark powers. Like an angered bull, he began charging at Sora with his claw-arm raised. Sora raised his Ultima Weapon to block the doctor's incoming strike and spun around in place to make a countering horizontal slash at Mavo's waistline.

In a freakishly adept way, Mavo dodged the Keyblade by bending his spine backwards, watching as the key-shaped weapon passed over him, completely missing him. Snapping back to a standing position, Mavo made to slice Sora's head off, but once again, his claw-arm only met the Ultima.

Sora countered with a vertical slash and this time he landed a critical blow across Mavo's gray-skinned chest muscles. As a follow-up attack, Sora spun around and swung at Mavo's body again, this time sending the demented doctor flying through the air. Dr. Mavo collided with the wall behind him at an elevated height.

Sora wasted no time in running after him and leaping up toward the doctor, who was wedged in the higher part of the wall. While in the air, Sora made to impale Mavo in his stomach with the tip of his Keyblade, and for a second, he thought he had proved to be successful in doing so. Looking down, Sora saw that Mavo had grabbed a firm hold onto the neck of the Ultima Weapon, holding it just inches away from his midsection.

Is a strained tone, Mavo heatedly declared, "It's my turn…"

With all of his strength, Mavo hurled the Keyblade to his left side, slamming Sora against the portion wall next to him. Next, Mavo levitated off of his wedged spot on the wall and proceeded to charge a black ball of Mojo in his left, partially normal hand.

Sora foresaw this maneuver and quickly leapt back down to the floor, narrowly missing the receiving end of a hefty explosion, which removed an immense section of the wall. Sora looked up just in time to see Mavo racing downward for him, claw-arm at the ready. Both villain and hero clashed their blades together, the former pushing his claw-arm down on the latter's Ultima.

With a devious and ugly smirk, Mavo brought his regular hand down in front of Sora's chest and charged a Death Blast, the same type of attack that incapacitated Crunch in the general store. Seeing no way around the ensuing attack, Sora braced himself.

The black ball of Mojo sent Sora flying backwards, past his hallucinating friends and into the short stairway that led to the entrance. As he collided with the stairs, a small explosion from the Death Blast followed. With a few back pains, Sora wobbily stood back to his feet.

Using his Keyblade as a crutch, Sora made a mental note not to get hit by one of those again. Meanwhile, Mavo stood across the laboratory, laughing away. He jeered, "So much for a Keyblade Master! You can't even fight without your friends!"

Sora retaliated, "At least I've got friends! Not even your leader wants to keep you around!"

Snarling, Mavo spat, "Shut up, you brainless kid!"

Panting a little, Sora briefly looked around at his still tripping-out allies, starting to wish that Draksin had done the same thing for them, too.

_Kairi's terror…_

Her knees were weakly trembling in front of her uncontrollably as she sat on the floor of her dark room. All of the furniture was violently shaking in the room, like a poltergeist was demonstrating its wrath. She sat in front of her closet door, unable to move for some reason. From the dresser behind her, a porcelain lamp had fallen and shattered on the floor, causing her to look back and see the commotion. However, in that split-second she had looked back, the closet door in front of her burst open; a gray tentacle had shot out from the closet's dark depths and wrapped itself around her ankles, dragging her inside.

Kairi screamed loudly and attempted to kick the spindly limb away but to no avail. She was harshly dragged inside, where she met a cackling, brooding Dr. Mavo standing over her. As he laughed, he opened his mouth wider until more gray tentacles emerged from his throat and grabbed at Kairi's arms and agonizingly constricted her small frame.

_Donald's antipathy…_

Donald was cowering on his belly with his arms wrapped over his head. He kept hearing the small sounds of thousands of _them_ marching in the attic of the small house; the sounds absolutely drove him batty. He proceeded to repeatedly bang his head against the wooden floorboard, praying for the sound to cease.

Suddenly, a hole in the ceiling up above broke open, giving way to an endless stream of insects that poured down into the musty room Donald was trapped in. Donald snapped up and screamed, "WAK!"

The ocean of insects joined together and stacked up, taking the ominous form of Dr. Mavo, who laughed and said, "Let your fear swallow you whole!"

Taking refuge in a corner, Donald watched in horror as the various bugs began to close in around him, and soon enough, they began to drown over the duck mage while he uttered cries of terror.

_Murray's prison…_

If there was anything The Murray feared, which was very little, it was tight spaces. Really tight spaces.

He didn't know where he was, or how he got there, but he knew for sure that he wanted out. At closer inspection, it seemed Murray's pink hippo body was stuffed inside a dark air ventilation chamber, vertically stuck inside the square-shaped compartment. The metal walls surrounding the hippo were impossibly tight, and for an air vent, it sure was hard to breathe in there.

The air especially was hot and thin. Murray's extremely heavy breathing was impeding him from actually calming down. His heart raced against the metal walls. His eyes desperately looked for a way out. Sweat trickled down his bald head. He couldn't move his legs. His arms were uncomfortably trapped behind him. His hands nervously scratched at the wall.

Someone needed to—

"GET ME OUT OF HERE!" Murray bellowed.

Suddenly, a low, evil snickering that belonged to Demon Mavo resounded throughout the tight ventilation chamber, working Murray's nerves even more.

_Sly's hell…_

Hot tears were running down his furry cheeks as he shakily sat in the living room closet, doing as his father told him to and hiding. A loud crash followed by a few laughs resounded outside of the closet, causing the young Sly Cooper to shudder and stream more tears. Crouching against the closet wall, Sly tried his best to cover his ears and remain silent.

From the outside, he heard his father let out a cry of pain that chilled Sly to the bone. He couldn't take this anymore; he stood up and pressed his gray-furred ear against the closed closet door. Hearing his father cry out again, Sly suddenly felt deep regret for even getting up. He heard more laughs from the five criminals outside, painfully reminding young Sly who was winning the struggle.

Beyond the door, Sly heard a dark and metallic voice utter, "Now, you die, Cooper."

"No…" young Sly panicked to himself. Against his father's wishes, Sly turned the doorknob and cracked open the door just in time to see his mortally wounded father falling to the floor. Sly let go of the doorknob and fell backwards on his bottom, hands tightly wrapped over his ears as he inaudibly wept to himself.

"You fellas hear somethin'?" said a southern, female voice from outside.

A booming voice with a hint of a Chinese accent added, "Yes, I heard crying!"

A British male's voice responded, "It sounds like a child…coming from over there!"

A voice that most likely belonged to a brawny, muscle-bound thug said, "I had no idea that Connor had a kid!"

Fearfully, Sly heard footsteps approach the cracked closet door.

_Riku's misery…_

He couldn't figure out why, but his legs weren't working. Dragging himself along the sandy, crimson-skied beach, Riku soon came to find that his entire body was covered in injuries, ranging from lacerations to numerous bruises. He looked around to see that their island was on fire; their wooden tree-houses were going up in flames.

Shakily, he looked up to see Sora and Kairi standing next to him, both also looking battered and beat up. They seemed to not notice that Riku was lying there as they both fearfully looked around, Keyblades drawn. Ten feet away from the pair, a black mist formed, taking the shape of none other than a smirking Dr. Mavo, himself. He stood in his regular form with his arms crossed, a confident air about his body language.

Suddenly, a blinding spotlight shined over Sora and Kairi; both heroes and the fallen Riku looked above to see a red gummi ship (i.e. basically, a spaceship) hovering above the idland, shining a bright light over the Keybladers. From the bottom of the ship, a square-shaped door slid open to reveal King Mickey's head, and then a long, rope-bounded ladder was thrown down.

The ladder unraveled and dangled next to Sora, who grabbed hold of one step with one hand and wrapped an arm around Kairi with the other. Together, they flew away with the gummi ship, holding onto the ladder's tethers. While they escaped the fiery island, Riku was left alone, still dragging himself.

Where Sora and Kairi didn't notice Riku defenselessly lying on the ground, Dr. Mavo did. Slowly trekking over to the wounded boy, the doctor said, "Poor Riku. Who would have known that he feared being left behind, especially by his two closest friends…"

In a sudden convulsion, Dr. Mavo's form became the one-clawed demon. With his foot, he rolled Riku to his back so he could face him. With his left hand, which retained sharp claws, he struck down at Riku's right shoulder, puncturing the boy's flesh.

Riku cried out, "AAAH!"

The second Riku cried in pain, Mavo reeled back his single claw-arm and willingly plunged it into the back of the Keyblader's throat.

_Back in the sane world… _

Sora uneasily watched as all of his friends tripped out. He wished he could help them, but as easy as antidotes come, Sora had no idea what to do. Watching the sneering doctor across the lab slowly inch closer to him, Sora gripped his Keyblade and prepared for round two.

Dr. Mavo brandished his long claw-arm with a mocking grin. "Are you scared?"

Returning a confident grin, Sora replied, "Not a chance! I can take you on by myself, anyway."

"Then show me, boy. I haven't got all day."


	67. Dark Jak

_Just saw those Oscars awards! You know how I am with award shows—can't get enough of them!_

**Chapter 67: Dark Jak**

Once again, black flames erupted all around Mavo's body, indicating that his power was rising. Sora wasted no more time and charged at the demented doctor, who readily stood his ground. Raising his Ultima Weapon, Sora swiped sideways at him, hitting only the air.

Mavo had ducked down to avoid the strike and then swiftly proceeded to throw his knee into Sora's abdomen. Next, he swung his claw-arm, which collided with Sora's Keyblade. Annoyed, Mavo grabbed the Keyblade with his regular hand and seized it away from the boy, throwing to the ground.

Raising his blade-arm high over his head, Mavo shouted, "Eat this!"

Sora only had a second to react; deftly, the Keyblader grabbed Mavo's claw-arm by its dull base before it severed into his head. With the other hand, Sora summoned his Keyblade from the floor and swung it at Mavo, scoring a heavy hit to the doctor's side. Sora then followed up with a flurry of combos to Mavo's backtracking body, ending with a diagonal blow to the doctor's jawbone.

Wiping dark colored blood from his mouth, Mavo gave the Keyblader an irritated snarl. "Darn it…I need more fear…I need more power!"

Suddenly, the black flames silhouetting Mavo's frame erupted again, this time, exponentially increasing his power. In response, Riku, Sly, Murray, Donald, and Kairi all screamed from the fact that their visceral hallucinations had been powerfully augmented.

Mavo cracked a bone in his neck and said, "That's much better."

He charged a black Death Blast in his clawed hand and threw it at the hero, who quickly blocked it and sent it in the opposite direction, back at Mavo. The doctor unblinkingly tilted his head to the side, narrowly dodging the projectile. The Death Blast blew a sizable hole in the opposite wall, letting in precious daylight from the outside world.

"You know," Mavo started, "you really irritate me. No matter how powerful I become, you just seem to shrug it off like it's just another battle with another lunatic!"

Sora wittily remarked, "Don't worry, Reiden wasn't nearly as crazy you are."

Sighing, Mavo rolled his empty blue eyes and said, "You idiot. If you had just let yourself stay under the hallucinogen's toxin, then your death wouldn't have to nearly be as gruesome."

Getting into his fighting stance, Sora beckoned, "Show me what you've got!"

Then, like a melting statue of wax, Mavo liquefied into the floor in a dark puddle; taking Sora by surprise, the puddle actually began sliding along the floor toward the boy. Right as Sora began to recognize this technique (as it is widely used by his lower level enemies, the Shadow Heartless), Mavo popped up from the puddle in front of Sora swung his blade-arm at the half-unsuspecting boy.

At the last second, Sora vaulted backwards. While Mavo sank back into the puddle with a satisfied smirk, Sora felt his vest and shirt had been cut open, accompanied by a medium grazing on his chest. Fiercely, he anticipated Mavo's next move, which involved popping up behind him.

Sora's anticipation was true; he vaulted forward to dodge the evil scientist's attack, this time succeeding in remaining unharmed. However, by the time Sora had turned around to face the doctor, Mavo was nowhere to be seen. Sora cautiously backed away, keeping his senses open. The only things he could hear, however, was his allies' incessant panicking and some birds tweeting from the outside world through the hole in the wall Mavo's Death Blast had blown. That was when he heard laughing.

"Hahahah, behind you, fool!"

Sora turned around and received four stinging claws across his chest. Mavo had flown from one wall to the other, nicking Sora in the process. Mavo repeated his wall-to-wall technique, narrowly missing the Keyblader with each dash. Sora parried the next three dash attacks, but failed to block the last one, resulting in four red scratches across his back. While Mavo seemed to give him a brief intermission, Sora took this time to weakly drop on a knee, breathing hard to regain his composure.

The black puddle moved in front of Sora again, and from it Mavo rose, standing tall. He said, "Now you see why it was most unwise of you to disrespect me?"

Still on his knee, Sora looked up and furiously declared, "You haven't beaten me yet!"

"I will soon enough!" Demon Mavo retorted. "And then I'll kill that traitor, Draksin, myself!"

Suddenly, a white Mojo Blast exploded on Mavo's back. The doctor flew forward, over Sora, and hit the ground hard. Surprised, Sora looked across the lab to see who had caused the disturbance.

Over where Mavo's Death Blast had blown a huge hole in the lab's wall, Crash stood with his hand out forward, looking as bold as ever. On cue, he shouted to no one in particular, _"It's just been revoked!"_

Sora gave the bandicoot a confused expression. From the outside world, Coco walked up next to Crash and sighed. She said, "Sorry, Crash…but Dr. Mavo didn't really set you up for that Lethal Weapons line."

"Okay, then…um, _is it hot in here, or is it just me?"_

Coco drooped her shoulders. "That was…just terrible. But better, nonetheless."

Mavo stood to his feet, feeling his power slip. Strangely, he said to himself, "I'm running out of energy, Mavo…fix this!"

Mavo involuntarily returned to his human form again. Looking down at his pale hands, he cursed to himself, "Brainless demon, you're the one who squandered your own time!"

From outside the cavernous lab, Jak, Daxter, Keira, Ratchet, Clank, Bentley, Goofy, and Link all entered the dimly lit room. Taking notice of Sora's battle-damaged appearance, Daxter remarked from Jak's shoulder, "Geez, Sora, you look like a nightmare!"

"Nice to see you, too, Daxter," Sora replied with a relived smile. Standing up, he asked, "What took you guys so long?"

Ratchet answered, "Well, you know, we had to do our hair, paint our fingernails, the usual."

Coco cut her eyes to Ratchet and muttered, "I resent that…"

Goofy, jubilant as ever, strolled over to Sora and patted him on the back, saying, "It's good to see ya still in one piece, ol' buddy!"

"WHOA!" exclaimed Daxter suddenly. "What the HECK did those guys smoke?"

The ottsel was referring to the hallucinating heroes cowering on the floor. All of them looked like lunatics: Kairi was lying on the floor, repeatedly kicking in all directions and hugging herself; Donald was rolling around on the floor whilst slapping various locations of his body; Murray was crouched under a lab table, sucking his thumb and rocking back and forth gently; Sly Cooper was on his hands and knees, shedding tears on the floor and emitting low cries; Riku was shaking violently on his back, clutching his left arm and, for some reason, keeping his mouth agape.

Sora told Daxter and the others, "It was Mavo! He injected all of us with some sort of toxin that makes us hallucinate and see our worst fears! Speaking of Mavo, where is he?"

Crash said, "I'm not sure. I think I might have seen him go…never mind, I don't know."

Looking at the raccoon, Bentley shook his head and said, "Poor Sly. He's probably reliving some things he'll never forget."

Link asked, "How can we help them?"

Sora seemed to finally acknowledge the Hylian was the there. Indifferently, Sora commented, "Looks like you've got your own mind again."

Narrowing his eyes, Link stated, "We'll talk about that later." He paced past Sora and arrived near Kairi, who was still violently kicking around. Kneeling next to her, Link coaxed, "Please, snap out of it!"

Not hearing him, Kairi continued to stare right through Link, as if he weren't even there. Link outstretched a hand and grabbed her shoulder, soon regretting that he had done so. She screamed, "No! Let go of me!"

"Calm down, I'm here to help—!"

"NO!"

Link stood up and backed away from the crazed girl. Stupefied by Kairi's lunacy, the Hylian warrior turned around to Sora and pointed an accusing finger. "And why aren't you affected by this—this toxin?"

Sora shot back, "I was! But, somehow, Draksin helped speed up the toxin's effect, so I was the only one to come back to the real world!"

Coco interjected, "Oh, so Draksin acted as a catalyst and helped you out. But how—and why?"

Suddenly, Mavo's voice rang throughout the lab, "Because I've been betrayed!"

Everyone looked up at the source of the scientist's voice, where they saw him levitating beneath the lab's dimmed lights. Holding one of the gloves that contained the remaining four syringes, Mavo gave each new hero a vengeful glare. He mumbled to himself, "Four hallucinogens left…"

Crash called up rather abruptly, "Hey, Mister Mavo, was it? We have to kick your butt, now."

Mavo took notice of the orange fur, pointy ears, and black nose. "Tell me, furry one, is your name Crash Bandicoot?"

Nodding with a smile, Crash said, "Yeah, that's my na—YOUCH!"

Like a ninja with a throwing star, Mavo had thrown a syringe directly into Crash's neck (his carotid artery, mind you). As the fluid drained into Crash's body, Crash yanked the syringe from his neck and proceeded to overreact, "Ay, ay, ay! This is a needle! That jerk-wad gave me a needle!"

Jak pondered, "Needle…? Does this mean Crash is going to hallucinate like the others?"

"Precisely!" Mavo answered. "Since Crash is the one Draksin wants, I'll destroy his mind completely before that traitor can get his hands on him!" Mavo looked down at the glove and removed another syringe from one of the finger-pieces. Looking around at everyone, he finally chose Link as his target.

Noticing that Mavo was preparing to throw another syringe, Jak quickly scanned which hero he was aiming for and pushed Link away; while his hands were still outstretched from pushing his ally out of harm's way, the needle landed in one of his arms, right where Link was previously standing.

"Jak!" Keira shrieked.

While removing the needle, Jak fiercely commanded, "Someone needs to stop him from throwing more!"

"On it!" Coco volunteered. She sprinted forward and hopped into the air, flying after Mavo.

The demented doctor smirked and readied another syringe for Coco. Throwing it like a shuriken again, he achieved his target; the needle seemingly landed in Coco's hand. However, on closer inspection, the bandicootess had actually skillfully caught the syringe by its barrel.

With a confident grin, Coco gazed into the needle's fluid and commented, "So this is the drug? I think I might take this home as a souvenir."

Mavo spat, "And who are you supposed to be?"

"I'm Crash's little sis, Coco!" the young bandicootess replied with her thumb on her chest.

"Really? Well, it looks like your brother may need your help down there."

In a silly Three-Stooges-Zoidberg fashion, Crash was on the floor, running in clockwise circles whilst randomly yelping, "Whoob-whoob-whoob-whoob-whoob!"

Disgusted, Coco murmured under her breath, "Oh, my God…It's just like that time he licked a Wumpa Rainbow Frog…"

Meanwhile, Jak's world turned completely black as he stood there, clutching his arm. Uneasily looking around, he heard disembodied voices echo to him, saying familiar things he'd heard before. One familiarly loud voice reminded Jak that it sucked being his friend; another gruff voice told him that he should at least be dead with all the Dark Eco he'd pumped into him; a female voice said in a cold tone, "Maybe the hero I knew did die in the desert. Or was it long before that?"

Jak grasped his head as more voices echoed…

"Erol…he's the best racer I've ever seen!" said Keira's voice.

The one called Erol echoed in his head, "Keira already thinks you're a loser…" The same voice echoed again, "I want more than just to win, Eco Freak. _I want you!"_

Jak's eyes flew open as a splitting headache pursued his senses.

"The people are blaming you, Jak," said Ashelin's voice.

A light voice told Jak, "The Day Star approaches. This planet's final trial is coming…"

A sophisticated voice stated, "You are hereby banished to the wasteland for life."

A monstrously booming voice yelled, "The boy is YOU, Jak!"

Another sickly voice evilly said before coughing, "The city is already dead! I've sold you all out!"

Sounding on the brink of death, the gruff voice from earlier sputtered, "You…are the supreme weapon, Jak and I made you…"

Yet another dying person's voice resounded throughout Jak's thoughts. However, this raspy voice seemed to strike genuine sadness in Jak as it said, "It was a good fight…and a good day to die. I'm…very proud to have been by your side."

Jak's own voice suddenly echoed, "…Father."

Meanwhile, on the outside world, Daxter was perched atop Jak's blonde skull with his head leaned over upside down in front of the drugged warrior's face. Slapping Jak's face persistently, Daxter yelled, "Yo, Jak! Anybody home?"

Jak's pained eyes suddenly went completely black all over; while panting heavily, his canines grew into lengthy fangs. Jak violently pitched his head upward and unnaturally roared into the air, simultaneously flinging the ottsel's body from his skull.

Shortly after landing on his back, Daxter gave the evolving hero an annoyed look. "Real classy. Take out your anger on the funny guy. It never ends!"

Excluding the other drugged heroes, everyone in the laboratory gawked at Jak as his body continued to undergo beastly transformations. Even Dr. Mavo gave the Dark Warrior a freaked expression. He shouted with confusion, "What in all that is unholy is happening to him?"

Stepping back, Sora looked from Jak and to an uncertain Keira. He asked her, "Keira, what's happening to him?"

Keira nervously explained, "When Jak get's angry, he changes! It's best that you all take cover!"

Purple lightning crackled around various locations of Jak's evolving body. Jak's skin pigmentation gradually lost all melanin and became a sickly pale color; long black nails erupted from his finger tips until they reached six inches in length. With his back arched backward and his arms spread like an eagle, Jak emitted another monstrous roar.

Standing next to Daxter, Clank analyzed, "My scanners indicate that Jak…has gone completely insane!"

Daxter concurred, "True 'dat! Run!"

In the blink of an eye, Dr. Mavo transformed back into his Feral Form, brandishing his sharp claw-arm. Fiercely staring Dark Jak down, he declared, "I don't care what you are. I'll eviscerate you like the foul beast you are!"

* * *

_Dr Lusef P. Mavo's secondary theme song (if you couldn't already tell from last chapter's title) is:_

_Down With the Sickness – by Disturbed._

_Check it out on my profile. It's the version that still has a little cursing, but the "abusive" part is cut out. And man, is that part abusive to the listener's psyche..._


	68. Not Afraid

_Eminem rules! (And no scrolling down!)_

**Chapter 68: Not Afraid**

All while the pandemonium was occurring in Mavo's half-destroyed lab, Crash was having a rather serene experience with his so-called "horrific hallucination."

Sitting on a cliff that overlooked a peaceful village, Crash realized he was his younger self yet again. Recognizing his surroundings, Crash soon realized that this place was his very first dream of the past. He looked over to his right to find that same black-haired girl sitting next to him again. Giving Crash a sullen expression, she apologized, "I'm sorry they pick on you so much."

Confused, Crash gestured a bit with his hands and asked, "Who?"

The black-haired girl sighed and quickly informed, "Nathan and his friends."

In all honesty, Crash had already known who the young anthro-girl was talking about. Maybe it was his pride, but he continued to play dumb. "Who are they, again?"

Sounding as sympathetic as she possibly could, the girl shook her head with a sad smile and said, "Don't be silly, you already know who they are. Nathan's the prince and those other bullies are his stupid lackeys."

"Right…" Crash faux-remembered, timidly rubbing the fur on the back of his neck.

"Listen, Jayzev," said the girl gloomily, her green eyes gazing directly into Crash's own. "My dad wants me home early because I gave Nathan a black eye. Since we're both the heirs to his throne, he doesn't like it when we fight each other. It makes him look bad, or something."

"Oh…" young Crash responded in a diminutive tone. "I'll see you later, then, Naomi."

After standing, the little girl named Naomi placed a hand on Crash's shoulder and said affectionately, "It's okay if you're afraid of them, Jayzev."

Crash looked up at her and said with a surprisingly hardened expression, "I'm not afraid."

Slightly taken aback by Crash's change in expression, Naomi nodded apprehensively and ran off in the opposite direction of the cliff, past Crash's shale-colored hut and through a village, disappearing in the community's busy streets. As Crash stood up from his perch on the cliff's edge, the peaceful world around him began to whirl in a colorful mess until the environment became completely white.

Amazed at the sudden change in setting, Crash looked down to notice that he was back to his seventeen-year-old body again in his usual attire (shirtless torso, blue jeans, and red Chuck Taylors). Walking forward on the invisible floor, Crash whistled the Old Spice tune to himself and casually glanced around at the emptiness.

"_Hello…!"_ Crash called, observing his echo. _"Chicken sandwich…! Star Wars…! Underwear…!"_

Complacently giggling about that last one, Crash continued his lonely trek forward, that is, until a woman's youthful yet matured voice suddenly echoed throughout the white area and halted Crash.

"Crash, can you hear me?"

"Uh…" Crash stumbled. "Yeah, I hear you. Two questions, though: who and where are you?"

"Don't worry about who I am, and you shouldn't be able to see me. Right now, I sense that you've been poisoned by that evil doctor…"

Sort of half-listening, Crash snapped his fingers and exclaimed in recognition, "Hey, you're that same mystery voice that talked to me during the car-chase! You remember, with the clowns shooting guns, and our limo was getting super beat-up while I just sat there talking to you in my thoughts?"

Giggling to herself, the voice answered, "Yes, Crash, I remember. Oh, and sorry for not waking you up sooner. I should've known you were in danger, as usual."

"Yep! So what do you want to talk about this time, besides me, myself, and I?" Crash inquired.

"Actually, I'm intervening this time because I sensed your mind has been tainted for some reason."

Crash nodded and said, "Oh, yeah. That's right, I just got injected by Dr. Mavo's toxin! I'm supposed to be experiencing excruciating fear…or so I thought…" Scratching the back of his neck, Crash looked up and asked, "So how come I'm not tripping out?"

"That's because I'm keeping you safe, silly," the voice responded.

At that, Crash seemed to recognize something. "Hey, voice?"

"Yes?"

"Is your name Naomi?"

And just like that, a tangible form of a black-haired teenaged anthro-girl flashed to existence not two feet in front of Crash. She was clad in a red tank top, black shorts, and purple tennis shoes. On her hands were black fingerless gloves, much like the style Crash used to wear. Draped over her shoulders were her shiny black bangs of hair; her hair had been neatly combed away from her face, revealing two green, concerned eyes.

If the immediate proximity wasn't enough, then the girl's saintly beauty pushed Crash over the edge. Standing there, blushing out of his mind, Crash shakily raised a finger to the air as the girl obliviously answered him, "Yes, Crash—how did you know my name? Who told you?"

Staggering and stuttering like a bad, scratched up CD-ROM, Crash finally said, "I c-c-c-can s-s-see y-you!"

Confused, Naomi asked, "What do you mean?"

"You're standing right in front of me!"

Naomi looked down and must have just noticed her visible body. Shrieking, she strangely crossed her arms over her chest and stated, "Oh my gosh—you're not supposed to see me here!"

"Why?" Crash asked. "You're kind of…pretty."

Turning in the opposite direction, Naomi looked back and urgently said, "Look, I'll send you back to the real world—maybe later we'll talk!"

"Wait!" Crash beckoned, feeling his bright world slipping away into darkness.

As the girl and the light faded into black nothingness, her voice echoed, "One way to save your friends is to sincerely comfort them, just like I did with you…"

However, Crash seemed to be too preoccupied with something else on his mind to pay attention to what the girl had told him. Crash angrily banged his fist into the side of his head whilst saying, "Stupid, stupid…not 'kind of pretty', super pretty! At least I'll remember to say that the next time I see her."

Like a thin black wall, the darkness surrounding Crash crisply burned away, revealing the interior of Mavo's gloomy laboratory. Standing to his feet, Crash yawned leisurely and observed the utter chaos occurring in front of him. Dark Jak and Dr. Mavo, who had transformed into his demon form again, were clawing at each other, constantly clanging their nails together.

Dark Jak leaned backward, matrix-style, and avoided a lethal claw-arm swipe. Snapping back up, Dark Jak brought his left hand to the ground and proceeded to run his sharp, black claws upward into the air, tearing the flesh on Mavo's chest. With his right hand, he straightened his fingers like the head of a spear and aimed for a kill-shot straight to Mavo's throat. Unfortunately, the twisted scientist caught the Eco Freak's hand and proceeded to ram his claw-arm toward Jak's chest.

Instinctively, Jak caught Mavo's claw-arm by the dull base with his remaining free hand, and both Dark Warrior and demented doctor entered a struggle of raw strength. Mavo seemed to be winning the skirmish, until Jak roared and emitted purple lightning bolts of Dark Eco. This seemed to weaken Mavo a bit, judging by the way he dropped to a knee and screeched in agony.

"Let me go, you sick beast!" Demon Mavo yelled, dropping to both of his knees.

Dark Jak obeyed…right after planting a harsh kneecap into Mavo's chin. Painfully landing on his back, Dr. Mavo sputtered, "Just what kind of hero are you?"

As an answer, Jak leapt into the air and intended to land feet-first on Mavo's body. However, before Jak made contact with his target, Mavo had adeptly thrown his legs up and kicked the mutated warrior dead in his stomach. Jak toppled back onto the floor, stunned by the counterattack.

Mavo quickly stood up and grabbed Jak by the ankle and effortlessly slung him across the room. Goofy and Link were standing in front of Dr. Mavo's glass pod during this time. (It might be worthy of mentioning that the creature Mavo was previously cloning is no longer floating in the pod…) Goofy and Link quickly dodged out of the way and let Dark Jak collide into the glass chamber, scattering shards all over the floor. Hazily stepping out of the half-destroyed chamber, Jak looked on ahead of him and widened his black eyes at the sight of a Death Blast tearing through the air for him. On impulse, Jak threw out his hands and caught the blast head-on. It exploded in his white hands immediately afterward; the small amount of smoke that swirled around disoriented Dark Jak a bit.

Hastily, Jak shook the cobwebs from his head and spotted Mavo charging at him with his lethal claw-arm raised high in the air. Jak sidestepped to avoid Mavo's attack and swiped his own black claws at Mavo, who had followed up with the same form of attack that Jak had planned. Together, both Jak and Mavo had executed claw-swipes of their hands at exactly the same time, giving each other deep flesh wounds along their fingers.

Mavo stared at his wounded hand in pain. Jak, however, must not have felt any pain whatsoever. The Dark Eco Freak ruthlessly planted his foot in Mavo's abdominal region and sent the doctor tumbling backwards on the floor. While Mavo continued to lay on his back, catching his breath, Jak slowly walked forward and caught up to the winded scientist with murder in his eyes.

Mavo must have read the message the Dark Warrior's eyes were sending him. Waving a pleading hand, Mavo begged, "Please…don't kill me! I promise I'll never harm you or your friends again! Just let me live!"

Dark Jak only continued to scowl. Raising a hand, Jak charged a fatal Dark Strike attack, which was very similar to Crash's Mojo Blast technique. With a deadly glower, Jak set off the Dark Strike and allowed it to collide head-on into Demon Mavo's hideous face, creating a blue-flamed explosion.

While smoke was still enshrouding the blast site, Jak charged more blasts in his hands and shot them off into the same exact spot as before, creating further damage to the laboratory. The floor and walls began to tremble; at this rate, Dark Jak's antics were going to get the heroes caved inside the lab. With each blast Jak shot off, he emitted a sadistically psychotic laugh at the destruction he caused.

Rushing on the scene, Keira skidded to a halt in front of Jak, wagging her finger and crossly commanding, "Stop it! Sit, boy!"

Dark Jak frowned deeper and pushed Keira aside. The blue-haired sage-in-training cursed, "What the heck? It worked on that one TV show!" (1)

Behind the perpetually enraged Dark Warrior, Keira tugged on Jak's brown gun strap and pled, "Please control yourself, Jak!"

Jak's mouth curved into another sadistic smile as he let off more Dark Strikes into the smoky pile of Mavo's ashes.

Keira, on the other hand, wasn't enjoying this one bit. Standing in front of the aggressive juggernaut, which, in general, is never a good idea, she locked her hands around Jak's shoulders and pled again, "Snap out of it, Jak! He's already gone!"

Jak drew his gaze downward at the girl desperately trying to wake him up. Scornfully, he tightly clasped his hands around Keira's arms, intending to burrow his claws into her skin. Not relinquishing her grip from Jak's shoulders, Keira cried, "Jak, it's me, Keira! Don't you remember me at all?"

Clenching his jaw for a second, Jak's fierce expression gradually became disoriented; his skin pigmentation returned to his normal count of melanin; his horns withered into black dust and blew away; his black claws retracted back into normally sized fingernails; his fangs shortened into regular teeth, and his eyes rolled back into cerulean orbs.

"Wow, that worked…" an astonished Keira commented.

Hazily, Jak looked from Keira to the smoking mass ahead of him. Steadily, realization of what had just transpired spread through Jak's senses. Uneasily, he squinted through the smoke and deduced, "He's gone."

As the smoke cleared, it became obvious that there lay no trace of Mavo anywhere. Meanwhile, each hero came out of hiding now that Jak was sane and less feral. Sora was the first to make a comment.

"Mind telling us what THAT was all about?" the Keyblader asked with a distrusting, raised eyebrow.

Jak glared off to the side and earnestly answered, "That was something I probably should've told everyone about on day one."

"Ya think?" Coco yelled.

"Way to warn us about important and possibly mortal dangers, Jak!" Ratchet piled on.

Becoming enraged, Jak snapped, "Just forget it, okay!"

Every hero immediately became silent in fear of initiating another Dark episode. Changing the subject, Coco ordered, "While Mavo's hiding, we need to find out how to help our friends!"

Coco jogged across the lab and sat at Mavo's vacant computer desk. After booting up the machine, the rest of the (sane) heroes strolled over and stood around the massive monitor, wondering what Coco was up to.

Asking the question everyone yearned to ask, Ratchet asserted himself, "Coco, whatcha doin'?"

"Mavo is sure to have an antidote recorded somewhere on here!" the bandicootess surmised, dragging the mouse to click on a folder aptly labeled "Fear Toxin Notes."

"Good thinking, Coco!" Keira commended.

"Uh-oh," Coco replied. On the screen, a password window had appeared, halting her progress. "We can't go any further."

Coco typed in a password, which consisted of asterisks for the actual characters. (Yeah, I know you guys know how a password works.) Coco hit the enter button, and an "access denied" screen popped up.

Ratchet asked, "What did you type in?"

"_I Love Evil,"_ Coco plainly answered. "It's always been Cortex's password."

"Who?" Ratchet asked.

"I'll tell you about him later," Coco shrugged.

With a slight idea popping into his head, Sora piped up, "Actually, I think I'll take a crack at it…"

Coco rolled to the side in the chair to allow space for Sora to attempt his suggestion. Punching in only a seven-character password, Sora hit enter and an "access granted" box opened, granting the heroes access to Mavo's Fear Toxin Notes.

"Whoa-ho-ho!" Daxter extolled with a laugh. "Look at the wiz-kid!"

Curiously, Bentley asked, "What exactly did you try?"

Sora grinned and answered, "Draksin told me Mavo was a kiss-up, so I guessed it was Draksin's own name."

A cluster of text documents appeared in an open window, each with different titles. Coco scrolled down through the array of documents, reading the titles aloud, "Let's see…Test Subject Backgrounds, Adrenal Gland Studies, Visceral Hormones Extraction #1, Homogeneous Blood Tests, Insanity Notes, Torture Tactics, Extractions #2, Hallucinogen Isolation Tests, Extractions #3, Toxin Contents, Toxin Effects—"

"Try that one," Bentley suggested.

Coco double-clicked said document and a report opened up. Skimming through it, each hero's eyes darted from side to side as they quickly scanned for some useful information. Being artificially intelligent, Clank was the first to make a find. He pointed and read aloud, "Look, it says, 'Effects of the toxin may vary between individuals, as well as the duration of the toxin's effect. Judging by the results from the test subjects, length can vary from as much as three to fourteen hours of torment until it completely wears off. If the toxin is overdosed, patient may be left in a stupor that lasts from six to eight hours."

Coco looked over at Crunch, who was still silently sitting against the lab's wall with a dead, blank expression. She looked back at the computer screen and sadly noted, "Just like the state Crunch is in…"

"Does it say anything about catalyzing the toxin?" Sora asked.

"Unfortunately, no," Clank answered reluctantly. "I seems we must wait until it wears off. It also says the duration varies on the individual's strength of will."

Coco fretted, "Oh, no! Our friends must be in a world of pain! Just look at Crash…underneath that stupid, dumb grin, he's absolutely terrified!"

Indeed Crash was idly standing in the same spot he had been injected with the toxin, staring off into space with a goofy expression. Strangely, he didn't seem to be tripping out like the other affected heroes. The unaffected heroes must have noticed this. Goofy had stated the observation everyone wanted to say, "Uh…Crash don't look so terrified, Coco."

Crash muttered to himself, "Take this, little squiggly!"

The bandicoot blinked his eyes, and a tiny, high-pitched screaming noise persisted afterward. Crash glanced over at the staring heroes and quickly explained, "Sorry, guys, I found another squiggly line floating in my eye. I almost had him this time!"

Jak asked, "Crash, how are you possibly in control of yourself right now?"

Crossing his arms, the bandicoot snidely replied, "I could ask you the same, Mister Grumpy!"

"The Dark Eco must have expelled the toxin inside me," Jak quickly explained. "Now tell us how you're okay!"

Placing a finger on his furry chin, Crash thought to himself for a few moments. Finally, he clarified, "You guys remember the girl I was talking about twenty four chapters ago?"

The rest of the heroes fell silent as they did their math. Surprisingly, Goofy came up with an answer first, as he had been counting on his fingers. The court knight answered, "Um…you mean _Flirtatious Mission?"_

"Yeah!"

Daxter suavely commented, "I liked that chapter…"

Cutting his eyes to Link, Sora scornfully proclaimed, "I hated that chapter…"

"Eh, it was tolerable," Crash added. "Anyway, you remember when I said I was talking to a girl? Well, that girl just now helped me out somehow. And she told me that the quickest way to help our friends is to comfort them!"

"Comfort them?" Link repeated. "How are we supposed to do that when they scream and kick at us every two seconds?"

Crash clenched his fist and declared, "We've just gotta get through to them somehow!"

* * *

Kairi couldn't see through any of the smoky blackness. Hastily, she tried standing, but soon found that the air was too thick with a smoky substance to breathe. Sitting back down in the darkness, she shivered once to herself before a giant clawed hand reached down from the sky and seized her from the ground. Ascending high inside the hand's constricting grasp, Kairi realized that she was being held by a fifty foot tall Demon Mavo.

In a giant's booming voice, Mavo laughed evilly and pondered, "I've always wanted to study a hero's breaking point! So let's see how hard I have to squeeze before you break like a twig!" Mavo began tightening every muscle in his hand.

"AAUUGH!" Kairi cried out. With only her arms and head free, she felt the unreal and painful pressure rush to her skull.

"In just a couple of seconds…pop goes the weasel!" Mavo taunted in between laughs.

Kairi screamed for what seemed like an eternity before the demented doctor mercifully released her. The princess fell about three stories before she hit the ground, landing with a thud on her back. Light headed and panting heavily, her vision blurred into two or three Dr. Mavos towering over her. Raising his foot, the nontransparent Demon Mavo in the middle boomed with a sneer, "The pain has yet to begin, my dear!"

Lying on the floor, Kairi gradually became engulfed in the shadow of Demon Mavo's descending black boot. Looking on at her approaching demise with fury, Kairi soon gave into the apparent fact that fighting Mavo on his own turf was futile. Just before the black underside of Mavo's boot crushed her, the environment noticeably entered slow-motion as Sora's voice rang throughout the smoky room:

"Don't give up, yet!"

Accompanied with Sora's, Link's voice also added, "I assure you, none of the pain you're feeling is genuine!"

While the dark world remained in slo-mo, Kairi began looking down at her crushed ribs and suddenly got the notion of breathing fully. A little nervous at first, she gradually let air fill her lungs. She noted that she had felt zero pain in doing so. Sora and Link were right; this world and all of its fear tactics were completely phony.

With a shudder, Kairi glared up at the approaching shoe. Standing upright to her feet, the environment's pace returned to regular motion, and Mavo's boot had landed on the angry princess but didn't squash her like its owner had expected to happen.

"Hm?" Mavo grunted when he realized his foot hadn't completely come in contact with the floor. Underneath his boot, Kairi had protectively crossed her arms over her head and was now using them to guard against the doctor's crushing shoe. Surprisingly, Kairi was having no difficulty in pushing Mavo's shoe away from her. With a final, successful heave of her arms, Kairi had repelled the demonic doctor's advances; at the very same time, a flash of light ignited her dark world, and she and the scientist were now located in her drafty room.

Mavo was still stumbling backward when Kairi summoned her Keyblade; charging forward, she struck downward at the scientist and scored a slash across his collarbone. In retaliation, Mavo locked his claw arm with Kairi's Keyblade, and the two struggled against each other.

However, before a victor could be manually decided, it seemed that Kairi had already won; gradually, Dr. Mavo and her dark room melted away, back into the clear, yet gloomy sight of the laboratory. She had conquered her fear.

Laying on the ground, Kairi realized that she had summoned her Keyblade and had been pushing it up against air. Noticing Sora and Link kneeled on either side of her, she slowly sat up and woozily asked, "Is the nightmare over?"

"You bet!" Sora cheerfully informed.

* * *

Donald had been running through the rickety, dilapidated, and door-less house for what seemed like hours. Exhausted, he stopped and leaned against a wall with half-torn striped-wallpaper to catch his breath. Suddenly, the wooden floorboards beneath the duck's webbed feet creaked before shattering right where he stood. A hairy, spindly limb reached up from the hole and whisked the duck mage down below.

What met Donald down below the floorboards caused him to screech, "WAK!"

The size of a Sports Utility Vehicle, a purple beetle with Dr. Mavo's head attached to its thorax greeted Donald with a monstrous snarl, which eventually turned into joyous laughter as it insulted, "You're pathetic, magician!"

Beetle Mavo opened his jaws to reveal two razor sharp pincers protruding from the sides of his mouth. Unmercifully, Mavo lowered the duck down into his mouth, callously eating the ducks legs.

Screaming like a lunatic, Donald shouted, "I'M A GONER!"

Rather intrusively, Goofy's voice responded from nowhere, "No yer not, Donald. Dontcha know that none of what yer seein' is real?"

Both of Donald's legs were currently submerged into Mavo's mouth as the mage asked, "Goofy, is that you?"

"Uh-huh. So…you gonna wake up anytime soon?"

Now chest deep into Beetle Mavo's gullet, Donald struggled to angrily retort, "Just how am I supposed to do that? I'm getting EATEN, here!"

"Really?"

"Yes!"

"…Really?"

"YES!"

By now, Donald's head had sunken far into Mavo's jaws leaving only a desperate feathered hand to waggle around above Mavo's maw. Goofy's voice seemed to hold a tone of slight reflection as he snapped his fingers and reminded Donald, "I don't think you wanna get eaten so quickly, Donald. Daisy's gonna be ticked off if her fiancé can't make it back to Disney Castle 'cuz he's too busy bein' dead."

While Beetle Mavo retained a satisfied smile, Donald's muffled, quacky voice resonated from his oversized stomach, "For Daisy!"

The royal mage's feathery hands slowly pried open Mavo's mouth with strength that rivaled a He-Man. Jumping out of the monster's maw, Donald landed on his feet, turned around, and gave the giant beetle-crossed-doctor a dagger's glare. Pushing his mage hat further past his forehead, Donald sternly said, "Let's go, bub!"

Mavo screeched monstrously at Donald, who only rolled up his blue sleeves in response. Randomly, Donald pulled out an aluminum can of spinach, popped it open, and practically drank its contents in one gulp. With over-the-top "Popeye the Sailorman" music playing in the intensely swooshy background, Donald flexed his upper body muscles and began eagerly marching over toward the giant Mavo-headed beetle.

With only a surprised look, Mavo accepted his fate of being pounded hard in the center of his face, sending his entire bug body flying through a basement wall. Simultaneously with the doctor's ungraceful landing, the environment around Donald began to fade away and finally resemble Mavo's lab where Goofy and the others awaited him.

Happy to be off the drug's effect, Donald high-fived Goofy and shrieked, "Praise Kingdom Hearts, I'm back!"

* * *

Meanwhile, Crash and Coco were doing their best to talk sense into Murray, who was still cowering under a lab table. Coco attempted, "C'mon, big guy, out from under the table, already."

After getting zero reaction, Crash told Coco, "I think you have to speak louder. He can't hear us."

Indeed, Murray couldn't. Still trapped in the tight ventilation chamber, Crash and Coco's voices were lost to him. Instead, he heard endless laughter cackle from all directions—above, below, and right behind his ears, if that was possible.

"You can't hide from me, hippo!" said the elusive voice of Dr. Mavo. "Very soon, I will eviscerate you!"

Murray fruitlessly struggled to squeeze free from his predicament. His legs were starting to lose circulation and become sore. Hopelessly, Murray complained, "Oh, no…Charley horse!"

"Charley horse?" echoed Crash's familiar voice throughout the chamber. "Maybe it's because you've been sitting on your legs too long!"

Murray called out, "Crash? Where are ya?"

"Nowhere. Just in the real world. Where are you?"

"I'm stuck—in some air vent!" Murray frightfully informed. "You've gotta find me and get me outta here, little buddy! I'm starting to cramp!"

Crash's downcast voice echoed, "Sorry, Murray. You have to save yourself, this time."

Straining weakly, the hippo panicked, "But I can't!"

Suddenly, Coco's voice snapped, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Since when is 'can't' in 'The Murray's' vocabulary?"

The Murray opened his eyes widely. Feeling some pride return to his ego, he answered, "Never!"

The bandicootess further motivated Murray, "Then what are you still doing acting like you can't? Break free, Murray!"

"Sir, yes ma'am!" The Murray replied.

"What's your name?"

Murray clenched his fists and bellowed, "I am _The Murray!"_

After screaming that last blatant fact, a mystical surge of energy exploded around the hippo, destroying the metal tiles of the air vent that previously surrounded him. Now realizing that he was currently floating above a peaceful Australian canyon, Murray contently smiled now that he had freed himself from his close-quartered prison. (2)

But before his peaceful surroundings melted away into the scene of the laboratory, The Murray noticed something rather odd about a certain new hairdo of his. He had actually grown a spiky head of golden, glowing hair that stood up much like that of a Super Saiyan's for some unknown reason. Murray plainly stated, "This is new."

* * *

The Fiendish Five were closing in on the closet door young Sly Cooper was hiding behind. Listening to their loud, approaching footsteps, Sly cowered against the closet's back wall. Rather abruptly, the loud footsteps ended, leaving only deafening silence to take their place. Curiously, Sly stood up and approached the door, pushing it open slightly to observe the empty living room.

Feeling a sharp pang of incredible pain in his abdomen, Sly Cooper looked down to see the end of a long claw protruding from his belly. Lurching forward in agony, he felt his whole body being lifted upward by the demented doctor standing behind him. The environment around the little Cooper faded to black as Mavo's laughter filled the air.

"Such a pitiful memory! You hide behind a closed door while your father is brutally murdered!"

Feeling the lifeblood leak to the ground from his stab wound, Sly felt consciousness slip from him.

Unexpectedly, from all around, Bentley's voice echoed, "Sly…you can't give in! Carmelita would kill me and Murray both!"

Young Sly suddenly discovered a resourceful amount of determination to stay alive within him. With one small hand, the young raccoon reached behind himself and latched onto Mavo's blade-arm and heaved himself forward, slowly and painfully slipping himself off.

"What?" Mavo shrieked. "You're resisting—how?"

With a final heave, Sly hit the floor, face-first and soon found out that his entire environment had drastically changed, including his own body. He was back to his adult body, even with his blue boots, sweater, hat, and red backpack. Tightly held in his right hand was his Cooper Cane, shining as elegantly as ever. Looking around, he noticed he was standing in the middle of a drafty street in Paris, France. The sky was a surreal scarlet color and extremely cloudy, looking like a terrible nightmare against the city's skyline. Surrounded by buildings on all sides of him, Sly stood to his feet and immediately felt the ground shake. Sprinting down the street, Sly felt the tremors grow more violently behind him.

Like a demon from the Underworld, Demon Mavo himself sprouted from the street's pavement in a hellish explosion. Instead of his regular height, Mavo had once again grown to the height of a fifty-foot tall giant. Furiously swinging his head from side to side, Mavo roared, "Where are you, you little rodent?"

Sly was still running away down the street when he spotted a mailbox on the sidewalk to take cover behind. Ducking behind said mailbox, Sly took a moment to regain his bearings and figure out his next move. Meanwhile, the giant Dr. Mavo was roaming the French streets, kicking over buildings and scanning the rubble at the same time. Chuckling maniacally, Mavo promised, "I'll find you, raccoon! And rip you apart!"

Mavo was rampaging in Sly's direction—he needed to move quickly. Hastily, Sly popped up and ran to the nearest French building, taking refuse behind the wall. He whispered, "Gotta think, Sly…" He peaked his head around the corner and gazed up at the loudly approaching demonic doctor. Thinking of an idea, he looked forward and saw a building with a Sucker Punch water tower in the doctor's rampaging path.

After a short second of mulling over a strategy, Sly reflected out loud, "The first rule to taking down a giant is to always attack the face. I need to get to that water tower before he destroys it so I can make the jump on his ugly mug!"

After establishing his plan, Sly got to work in climbing the adjacent building and making sure he stayed out of sight. Reaching the roof of the French building, Sly Cooper took a moment to hide behind an A.C. unit when the giant scientist halted his rampage to look around. When Mavo resumed marching forward, kicking over cars and lampposts in the process, Sly also continued his mission to the water tower.

Sly made the jump to the next building, one more to go before he reached his destination. However, in the two seconds that he was airborne, Mavo had unexpectedly whirled around and caught a last second's glance of a certain raccoon taking cover behind a large, deactivated skylight. Chuckling monstrously, Mavo backtracked and stood alongside the building Sly had just jumped to. Raising his clawed hand into a fist high over his head, Mavo screeched, "I've got you, you little rodent!"

Smashing the skylight device, Mavo soon realized that there was no crushed raccoon under his fist. Temporarily bewildered, he grunted, "What the—?"

Meanwhile, Sly had quietly and masterfully reached the tall building with the water tower. Climbing to the wooden water tower's peak, Sly gazed outwardly at his target's wiry head of hair. Mavo was still facing away at the previous rooftop, confoundedly looking for the Cooper.

With a quick run-and-jump, Sly leapt from the water tower's peak and utilized his paraglider to glide onto Mavo's head. Before Mavo could react to the sudden thud on his head, Sly jumped and purposefully fell in front of Mavo's face, startling the doctor immensely.

Sly unsympathetically dug his cane into the bridge of Mavo's nose, tearing a gash down to the tip of the doctor's nose. Mavo shrieked in anguish, roaring into the red skies of Paris, France. Shaking his head frantically, Mavo fruitlessly tried to relinquish the raccoon's grip on his cane.

Despite being rocked, Sly regained his composure and climbed onto the tip of Mavo's nose, releasing his cane from the ailing scientist's flesh. With the power of every Cooper charging his cane an electric-yellow color, Sly jumped up and cried, "Hey ugly! EAT THIS!"

Sly swung his cane downward with the force of a certain god of thunder. (Thor!) The cane slashed down at Mavo's forehead and actually sent the giant monster of a demon harshly to the ground. For a moment, Sly just levitated in midair, cane in-hand. He looked up and the red, cloudy skies cleared out to form a beautiful blue one. The nightmare was over.

Sly's world brightened until it blinded him. Gradually, Mavo's laboratory returned to Sly's vision, where he was surrounded by his concerned allies. Grabbing his skull, Sly asked, "How long was I out?"

Bentley smiled and answered, "Way too long, pal."

"Bad news," Sora suddenly announced. Kneeling next to Riku with Kairi, Goofy and Donald next him, Sora shook his head in trepidation and added, "Riku's not responding to anything we say or do!"

It was true; Riku was still lying on his back with his mouth completely agape as he stared up into the lab's ceiling with a petrified look. His entire body shook eerily on the floor as his left hand tightly clutched his right shoulder.

Sitting up, Sly made to assist the petrified Keyblader…for about a second or two until his furry face formed a grimace. In his sitting position, Sly lurched forward and gagged, startling Bentley, Jak, Daxter, Ratchet, and Clank.

"Whoa," Ratchet exhaled at Sly's unsightly gagging. "What's up with you, Sly?"

Sly couldn't reply; he just continued retching, his eyes watering as he did so. Grabbing his throat, Sly actually looked as if he was trying to vomit something.

Jak called to the other heroes scattered about Mavo's lab, "Guys, we've got a situation!"

It seemed Sly wasn't the only one horribly retching. Nervously, Sora looked from Donald and Kairi and called back, "Yeah, so do we!"

Both the duck mage and red-haired princess were making gagging noises as well. They both slowly backed away from Sora and toppled down to the floor in agony as they continued to choke and cough. Sora exclaimed, "Guys! What's wrong?"

Soon enough, Murray had also fallen on the floor with ghastly gagging movements, repulsing Crash and Coco. Slamming the floor with the side of his fist, he shouted in between retches, _"What's happening to me?"_

Standing next to Sora, Link proposed with a repulsed look, "Could this be a side-effect of the toxin?"

Before Sora could offer his opinion, the four suffering heroes completely disturbed him and the rest of the legends when they actually began to vomit a black substance onto the floor. It appeared to be a black liquid that poured from each of their agonizing throats and pooled onto the cold floor.

While Jak stared in horrified awe at the sickening occurrence, Daxter jumped down from his shoulder and strolled over to Kairi's ailing body. While she was on her hands and knees vomiting the black liquid, he delicately hopped onto her back and, somewhat, generously held back her hair for her. After receiving the strangest of looks from his allies, he shrugged and said, "What? I didn't see any of you guys volunteer to do it!"

Coco also shrugged and agreed, "He's right, it _is_ common courtesy."

Finally, the four ailing heroes finished vomiting the unknown substance. Speaking of that liquid substance, the pools of it that Kairi, Donald, Murray, and Sly had thrown up had actually begun sliding across the floor and into the middle of the laboratory where no one currently stood.

Once Kairi, Donald, Murray, and Sly had regained their bearings, they joined the other perplexed heroes in gawking at the moving puddles. The black puddles of who-knows-what combined together to form one large, round pond of black liquid. Beside Riku, everyone in the room gaped as the pond started to eerily rise up and take the form of a familiar evil, twisted, and demented doctor in his human form. His right coat sleeve was ripped from his Demon's Form's claw growth, along with the chest of his gray and black shirt.

Jak growled, "I thought I killed you already!"

Now completely tangible in complexion and clarity, the resurrected Dr. Mavo laughed and replied, "I was never dead, you fool! I simply recoiled into my Liquid Form and retreated into the safe bunkers Riku's, Murray's, Donald's, Kairi's, and Sly's terrified minds. There, I recuperated and gained enough power from their fears to completely level these mountains! And if I'm not mistaken, one of you is still under my influence!"

"Darn you!" Sora angrily spat with a clenched fist. "You'll pay for doing this to us!"

Raising his normal, human hand, he charged a black Death Blast in it and retorted, "How about I make sure you morons die this time…"

"MAVO!"

The scientist and the fourteen heroes looked back at the source of the valiant cry. Taking off his golden jacket and sword and handing the items to Coco, Crash Bandicoot got into a battle-ready stance and eagerly stated, "I'm in a fighting mood, right now. And since I missed a good fight with Calypso for my bi-curious sister, I really wanna punch somethin'!"

The Death Blast in Mavo's hand deteriorated into nothingness. With a sly smile, the scientist crossed his arms and said, "So the great hero Crash Bandicoot, who conquered the likes of Reiden Long, wants to challenge me? Tch."

Cracking his knuckles, Crash beckoned, "Quit talking and fight."

* * *

1) God, I loved to hate that show, _Inuyasha_.

2) Murray trained under his Guru to become spiritually one with nature (or some junk like that) in Australia between the events of _Sly 2_ and _Sly 3_.

_Oh, my god…_

_Once again, oh my god…_

_Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is my new crack. I want to cry right now because of how insanely addictive that game is. All I've got to do is pick my team of Dante, Wolverine, and Deadpool, and I'm blazed._

_Uh…anyway—on the next chapter of Legends United, Crash Bandicoot and Dr. Mavo go head to head and even take the fight outside like classy gentlemen! Meanwhile, our heroes are desperately trying to revive Riku's shattered psyche, and they get an uninvited guest by the name of Draksin Mefisto! His number one priority: Sora._

_Don't miss out on the next chapter, __**Crash vs. Mavo! **(I'll have it uploaded tomorrow)_


	69. Crash vs Mavo

**Chapter 69: Crash vs. Mavo**

_Before this chapter begins, Mr. Hybrid has requested that an unlikely character from a completely different franchise join the main set to complete a rather stupid gag that he's been planning for a while…_

Crash turned to face the other heroes and commanded, "I'll handle Dr. Doomsday. I need you guys to keep trying with Riku. He might breakthrough!"

Jak nodded. "Be careful of that claw if he transforms again."

Not seeing the threat Jak was trying to notify him about, Crash shrugged and replied, "Sure thing, I guess."

Walking forward ahead of his allies, Crash stood only ten feet away from Dr. Mavo. Speaking readily to the evil scientist, Crash asked, "So should we get this party started?"

"Hmph," Mavo grunted. From his lab coat pocket, he reached in and pulled out his multi-purpose goggles, slipping them on as well. Activating them, Mavo gestured with two fingers and said, "Show me your full power, bandicoot."

Crash scratched his head. A little confused, he guessed the doctor meant for him to charge up his Mojo, so he got into a slight meditative stance and began absorbing small particles of Mojo from all around him. The heavenly substance was abundant in this area, Crash noticed. It must have been because the natural and mountainous area had numerous sources of life.

Another thing that Crash noticed was that every time he gained a new Mojo-related ability, like his Dragon Punch move (a.k.a. Shoryuken!), his Mojo Energy Cap seemed to heighten. In other words, he could charge up more Mojo into his body at a single time. After learning his Shoryuken technique, he found that there was still plenty more room to absorb Mojo, so he kept charging. Soon, the fresh power put a strain on his body, and Crash began to growl lowly as he reached his energy cap.

The numerous glass beakers, graduated cylinders, and test tubes began to shake from various lab tables around Crash as he powered up. Also feeling the ground vibrate underneath them, the heroes gave Crash bewildered looks. Keira leaned in close to Coco and asked in a whisper, "How did he learn how to shake the ground?"

With the same amount of confusion in her tone, Coco responded, "Beats me. Are you feeling all of that Mojo draining into him? It's like he's a vacuum!"

Back in the battle, Crash felt his Mojo cap nearing and steadily halted his absorption. Standing upright with a confident smile, Crash asked Mavo, "How's that?"

Chuckling at the bandicoot's childish demeanor, Mavo confirmed, "Yes, that's fine." Mavo brought up a hand to his goggles and instantly began toggling through the device's settings. "Let's see…heat sensor, X-ray sensor, lethal gas detector, substance identifier, DNA analysis…and Mojo level analysis."

From nowhere, a muscular bald man down to nothing but his black underwear and combat boots stood between Crash Bandicoot and Dr. Mavo. However, neither bandicoot nor scientist seemed to take this as a strange occurrence.

Using the function on his goggles, Mavo began counting Crash's Mojo level. The numbers flashing on the lenses of his device continued to climb, startling the mad scientist a bit.

Meanwhile, the muscular bald man, known as Nappa in a certain cartoon series, turned around to Dr. Mavo and impishly asked, "Dr. Mavo, what's the scouter say about his Mojo level?"

As the numbers continued to climb past a certain unholy number, Mavo seemed to have had enough of it. He ripped the goggles from his face and, with one hand, crushed them into a thousand pieces, all while screaming overdramatically, "It's over NINE THOUSAND!"

The Saiyan Nappa turned around again and screamed in disbelief, "WHAT? Nine thousand? There's no way that could be right, COULD IT?"

Mavo sneered. "Are you questioning the proficiency of my technology?"

Nappa bowed his head in shame. "No, sir."

"Now get out!"

The muscular Saiyan droopily levitated out of the lab's hole-blown exit and disappeared into the sunset.

Meanwhile, Jak seemed to voice everyone else's confusion when he asked, "What in the Precursors was that?"

With Jak's question going unanswered, Mavo charged up his own Mojo and entered his Feral Form in an explosion of a black aura around his body. The twisted demon brandished his claw-arm and barked, "Listen up, rat! Mavo doesn't like it when we tear up his lab, so we're taking this fight outside!"

Slightly puzzled by the doctor's referring to himself in the third person, Crash replied awkwardly, "Sure, um…Crash thinks that's a good idea!"

The two combatants exited through the hole in the wall Mavo had blown earlier and into the Sayan Mountain's wilderness. The darkened sky was extremely cloudy, most likely about to storm. The wind was picking up, blowing against Mavo's wild hairdo and Crash's red Mohawk. Both opponents levitated in the air above the mountain, eyeballing each other from fifteen feet away.

Slipping off his tattered lab coat and letting it flutter to the mountainous landscape beneath him, Mavo crossed his arms and cheekily declared, "If you don't mind, I think I'll make the first move…"

Instantly after announcing that, Mavo dashed forward and threw a quick punch at Crash's face. Like lightning, the bandicoot swiftly caught the gray, clawed fist with his right hand. Mavo followed up by raising his claw-arm and slashing downward, an attack of which Crash unwisely decided to catch with his other hand.

Mavo smirked.

Crash looked to his left hand and noticed the blood seeping from where he had caught the sharp edge of the blade-like limb. Then, the pain came.

"AAAAAAAH!" Crash bellowed. Painfully removing his wounded hand, he grimaced and yelped, "Yee-ow! I had no idea that thing was sharp! Maybe that's what Jak was talking about…"

Mavo taunted, "You're an even bigger imbecile than I expected!"

"Darn, should've brought my sword…" Crash contemplated. "Too late, now…"

"Moron. You've already lost this fight. You can't win with only one hand!"

"It…it doesn't even hurt!" Crash bluffed. His eye twitched.

Mavo laughed again. "Ahaha, I guess poker wasn't your best game!"

Out of irritation, Crash threw a kick and missed Mavo completely. The evil doctor smiled wickedly and flew up higher into the sky with the speed of a bottle rocket; Crash soon followed suit, struggling to match the scientist's speed. From up above, Mavo eclipsed the sun and extended his palm downward, screaming, "Have some of this! _Death Storm!"_

A flurry of black colored Death Blasts erupted from Mavo's palm and plummeted downward at Crash, who only frowned and complained, "Man, I was gonna use that move. Except, I would've said something like…_Tenma Gou Zankuu!_ Or something…"

Crash crossed his arms defensively over his face and braced himself for the barrage of explosive blasts. One by one, each blast burst against him, pushing him back down a few feet. When the Death Storm ended, Crash looked up and widened his eyes at the rapidly approaching demonic doctor. Quickly, Crash floated to the side and allowed Mavo's claw-arm to slash nothing but air. Then, he punched Mavo across the jaw with his unharmed hand, sending the doctor flying backwards, and dashed after him with the speed of a falcon.

As the doctor flew backward in pain, Crash flew overhead of him and reared back an even heavier punch, of which Mavo blocked against and prepared to throw a slash of his claws to the bandicoot's face. Fortunately, Crash caught Mavo's wrist with his uninjured right hand before the claws could shred his face.

Next, Crash threw a series of punches to Mavo's stomach with his other wounded hand. Crash tried as hard as he could to ignore the pain and not pull his punches, but found that to be a difficult task as more blood drenched his fur. With a final heavy strike, Crash sent the demented doctor plummeting into the earth. But before Mavo slammed into the ground, Crash readied his hands and screamed, "Kamekameka!"

A white blast of Mojo shot from Crash's hands and trailed after Mavo with an explosion being the end result. Crash unwittingly pumped his left fist and cheered, "Oh, yeah!" Almost immediately after doing so, he squinted in agony from the searing pain in his palm.

However, before the bandicoot could have anymore time to contemplate his stupidity, Demon Mavo himself had sprung up from the smoky blast sight, murder in his blue eyes.

Meanwhile, back in the lab, Sora was having the hardest of times getting through to the petrified Riku. Desperately, he shook the boy's shoulders and pled, "Please wake up, Riku! You have to!"

Every other hero was anxiously gathered around Riku as Sora continued his hopeless attempt at reviving him. Sullenly standing next to the kneeled over Keyblader, Link grabbed Sora's shoulder and tried, "I don't think we can help him, wherever he is, Sora…"

"No…" Kairi suddenly disagreed. "We have to keep trying! He would do the same for us!"

"She's right," Sora concurred. "We can't give up!"

Murray scratched his pink chin and suggested, "Maybe if we all yelled his name, he could here us!"

Considering the idea, Sora nodded and said, "It couldn't hurt."

Daxter counted down, "On the count of three…two…one—"

"RIKU!" the heroes bellowed in unison. However, the silver-haired boy remained unresponsive.

Suddenly, a low chuckling noise could be heard from the shadows of Mavo's laboratory along with a slow clapping of someone's hands. Jak, Daxter, Keira, Bentley, Murray, Sly, Ratchet, Clank, Link, Sora, Kairi, Donald, Goofy and Coco all looked over to the shadows and gaped at the presence of the brooding, smirking man with acid-yellow eyes.

That man stepped forward into the dim light and revealed himself. Crossing his arms with an arrogant grin, he greeted, "And you all must be the heroes."

"Who the heck are you?" Coco brashly retorted.

Sora darkly whispered to her, "…That's Draksin."

Draksin remained in his intimidating position a few feet away from the deeply perturbed herd of heroes. With a small chuckle, Draksin asked innocently, "How have you been sleeping, Sora?"

Instantly drawing his Ultima Keyblade, Sora shifted into a battle stance and yelled, "Shut up!"

Draksin continued smirking. "Ouch. That's no way to speak to the man who helped you not even an hour ago."

Daxter suddenly commented, "Whoa…I'm sensing some history, here."

Sly quickly explained, "In the past few days, Draksin's been invading Sora's mind repeatedly. He's made him do some pretty bizarre stuff!"

"Looks like your friend Riku isn't going to get any sleep anytime soon, either," Draksin remarked, noticing the petrified teen lying on the floor. "Screaming his name won't exactly work. If you want my expert advice, he needs the physical affection of a very important person to him."

Simultaneously, every hero looked back at Keira. The aqua-haired girl shook her head, "He might only be a year younger than me, but there's no way I'm doing that!"

Rolling his yellow eyes, Draksin clarified himself, "Idiot, that's not what I meant. And if I'm not mistaken, _you're_ not the person he needs."

Sora continued glowering at the Dark One. Changing the subject, he stated, "You said we would settle this once I found the lab. Well, now I'm here, so let's finish this!"

Draksin's evil grin faded. "Fine. Let heroes have their way."

All of a sudden, the entire room became heavy with some invisible, undetectable force. This force held each hero in place, including the no-longer shuddering Riku. No one could move their limbs or bodies; it was like a long rope had been tied around every inch of each hero, rendering them helpless.

Jak snarled under the intense pressure, "I…I can't move!"

"What's goin' on with us?" Goofy questioned in a panicky tone.

"Not even I can move!" Clank fearfully observed.

"What kind of trickery is this?" Link exclaimed, trying and failing to reach for his sword.

Draksin looked dead at Sora, who was also paralyzed in his battle stance. Raising both his gloved hands, Draksin suddenly threw them both out in front of him. This little motion caused every single hero, beside Sora, to be tossed backward against a hard wall of the lab. Since there was a great distance between where they were previously standing and the wall, they had slammed into it pretty hard.

Hearing the pained groans of his allies, Sora stood like a lone wolf in front of Draksin, unable to move a single finger. Draksin glared at Sora, whose eyes suddenly changed from blue to yellow. Making his way over to the boy, he came to a halt not two feet in front of Sora, towering over him with a reproachful glare. In three simple words, he commanded, "Bow to me."

Absentmindedly, Sora kneeled down to the floor one knee at a time until he had fully bowed to the Dark One. The heroes watched in bitter confusion from their paralyzed positions against the wall as Draksin controlled Sora yet again.

"What's he doing?" Ratchet strained to ask.

Donald answered, "This is where the 'bizarre stuff' Sly was talking about fits in."

Murray added erratically, "It's mind control, I tell ya!"

After Sora had thoroughly bowed to the brooding man, he sat back up on one knee, absently staring up at the dark being with his yellow eyes. Draksin reeled back his foot and droned, "The power of light…it's what strengthens heroes. Well, isn't that special—"

Draksin had punctuated that last sentence with a fierce kick to Sora's jawbone, harshly sending the Chosen One skidding backward against the floor. Landing on his back, Sora opened his now blue eyes and panted heavily.

In horror, Kairi had shouted, "Sora!"

Sora didn't respond on account of the fact that Draksin had grabbed a thick tuft of his brown hair and proceeded to lift him up off the floor by it. Whimpering in agony from that sharp pain in his scalp, Sora felt his feet leave the ground as he was completely lifted a foot into the air. Draksin glared into Sora's blue eyes again, but this time, he left their color alone. Audible to everyone in the room, Draksin nonchalantly ordered, "Come with me, Sora. We've got something to talk about in private—your future."

Black mist began to spiral around Draksin and Sora, and a second later, the pair had disappeared.

Clank began, "W-where did they go?"

"No idea," Jak replied, uneasily rubbing a sore spot on his shoulder from when the dark villain had pushed him and the others against the wall.

"They just up and vanished!" Keira relayed in disbelief. "Why would he just take Sora away like that?"

Donald jumped erratically. "We've gotta find out where that palooka took him! C'mon, everybody!"

While Donald was raring to go, Sly seemed to be deep in thought about something on the other hand. He raised a patient hand and said, "Wait a sec, Donald. Uh…I think I might have noticed something…something familiar about Draksin."

"What do you mean, Sly?" Ratchet inquired curiously.

"I mean…well, I don't know what I mean," Sly contradicted himself. "It's just that…when Draksin was grinning, he looked like someone I know. I just can't figure out who!"

"Well, whoever you thought you saw…" Coco started, seemingly taking lead of the situation. Carrying Crash's sword and jacket, she walked over to Crunch and powerfully hoisted his stupefied body upward with one burgundy arm around her neck and said, "…It doesn't matter, because right about now…" Coco slung the strap of Crash's sheathed sword around her shoulder and finished, "Crash is probably realizing that he needs his sword."

* * *

Flying downward at the hastily ascending Demon Mavo, Crash reeled back his fist and made to attack first before Mavo could get a chance. When the two combatants met in the sky, Crash's punch connected with Mavo's crossed-over arms, both of which protected him from the bandicoot's attack.

Charging a considerable amount of Mojo and channeling it into his right fist, Crash bellowed, "Take this!"

Once again, the attack connected, but Mavo's guard resistance was too strong for the Mojo-powered marsupial. The white flame surrounding Crash's hand died away, and so had the flicker of hope in his eyes. Panting, Crash asked, "Don't you ever get tired?"

"I guess someone's had a long day," Mavo derided scornfully. "Allow me to show you something that will worsen your day even greater!"

Mavo and Crash entered a levitating-standoff, the latter of whom was watching in horror as the skin on Demon Mavo's partially regular left arm began to bubble unnaturally. Mavo laughed manically as his arm basically liquefied right where he floated in the sky. Causing Crash's gag reflex to act up, Mavo's deformed arm swirled around in a revolting convulsion of black liquid before it took the solid form of a second claw-arm.

The sickening scientist grinned evilly at Crash as he brandished both of his claw-arms. Crash, however, was not grinning. Gulping and letting a sweat-drop roll down the side of his face, he simply stated, "Man, I really need my sword."

Right then and there, Crash heard a voice call up to him from the ground. Looking down at the mountainous terrain below him, he saw Coco standing with her hands cupped around her mouth. She called again, "Hey big bro! Forgot something?"

Without warning, Coco chucked her father's sword up at Crash. Panicking for a second, Crash fumbled the sword in his hands before finally catching it. Frowning down at his sister, he chastised, "HEY! Don't _throw_ things at me!"

"Ah, quit whining! The sheath was still on!" Coco retorted.

Drawing his sword, Crash glared at Mavo and said, "Prepare for doom, Dr. Mop-O!"

"It's MAVO, you idiot!" Mavo quickly snapped back.

"Whatever."

With bandicoot wielding his mighty sword and demon doctor brandishing both of his deadly claws, both powerful opponents dashed through the air at each other, determined more than ever to end the fight and/or make the kill.

* * *

_Don't miss the insane conclusion to the third arc of **Legends United! **_

_Okay, now I'm being totally serious. Don't scroll to the bottom of the next chapter's page. It should be up tomorrow or later tonight if I feel like it…_


	70. Meaning of Life

_This chapter is quite similar to Chapter 31 (the one where they beat Reiden). By similar, I mean that it's a bit long and a lot of things are happening here. So get comfortable, and I've also divided it into five parts for you._

_And with that, this chapter is on the violent side. And definitely no scrolling down, guys._

**Chapter 70: Meaning of Life **

_**1. Negotiations**_

Before Sora could scrutinize his surroundings, he had been kneed in the stomach and pushed to the dirty ground. Then, he was lifted up by his collar to come face-to-face with Draksin Mefisto. The two warriors of light and darkness were currently inside a spacious cave with only just a few stalactites and stalagmites lining the cavern's perimeter. Daylight from the cave's mouth evidently leaked inside, and the outside world revealed that the cave itself was actually higher up along the same mountain that Dr. Mavo had hidden his laboratory inside. Draksin and Sora were so high up that the cave they were residing in was nearly at the mountain's summit.

Holding Sora by the collar, Draksin commenced, "Before we begin our chat, can you tell me if that rat who's fighting Mavo outside is Crash Bandicoot?"

Sora glowered at Draksin before answering, "Yeah, that was him."

Draksin grunted, "Hm. He's stronger than I thought…Anyway, I've noticed you've been acting strangely lately, Sora. Has someone gotten inside your mind?"

Pushing away from Draksin and summoning his Ultima Weapon, Sora snapped, "You shut up! You're really irritating, you know that?"

Looking genuinely confused, Draksin countered, "How so?"

"You control my mind, you've made me do bizarre things—you won't shut up about random things in my head every half hour! And you threatened to hurt my friends!"

Draksin corrected, "No, I threatened to MAKE YOU hurt your little friends, actually. Listen, don't be so steamed, I'm really here to help you."

Sora pointed his Keyblade at Draksin like an accusing finger. "Help me? Why would I need help from someone like _you?"_

"You're right, Sora. I need _you _to help _me…"_

Lowering his weapon, Sora bewilderedly asked, "What?"

Slowly walking circles around the confused boy, Draksin gestured with his hands as he explained, "You see, I'm aging very quickly these days. The truth is that I'm hundreds of years old, and…I'm tired. Exhausted. I need to finally rest once and for all…"

As Draksin circled behind him, Sora muttered audibly, "Your right—I _can_ help you with that…"

Chuckling good-naturedly, the Dark One replied, "Sorry, that's not what I meant. For many years, I've been searching for the perfect apprentice. Reiden proved to be too rambunctious to even take me seriously. Arden is like a teenager, she just won't do as she's told. I already told you why I don't trust Lusef. And my current apprentice, Biff, seems too gentle."

"Your point?" Sora asked.

Draksin stopped in front of Sora and continued, "But you, Sora, you're perfect to take my place. You and I are so much alike in many ways. We love fighting. We can't stand traitors. We do whatever it takes to accomplish our goals. It must be something in our blood, I suppose."

"Except my blood's not tainted with darkness like yours," Sora stated.

"This much is true. But think about it, my boy. With my help, I could make you the perfect warrior. I can give you a prowess in controlling your energy and emotions. I can even lend you abilities that surpass my current apprentices—for example, the gift of saving your loved ones from dying."

Facing the floor, Sora's expression was unreadable as he asked, "If I get all that, then what's the catch?"

"Very simple. I stamp out every pesky trace of light within you and replace it with eternal darkness." Draksin leisurely walked toward the boy, giving him a pleading look. He asked, "So what do you think?"

"That you're crazier than Mavo if you think I'll ever join you," Sora suddenly answered as he continued to face the ground. Looking up again, Sora defensively held his Ultima Weapon as he beckoned, "Now, let's settle this!"

Sighing deeply, and sounding on the brink of exhaustion, the dark lord plainly stated, "I don't want to fight with you, Sora."

"'S'matter? Scared you'll get beat by a kid?"

Draksin shook his head. "No. I just can't let you miss such a bountiful opportunity at powers beyond your imagination."

Sora countered, "My friends are my power!"

Draksin continued to shake his head in exasperation. "You disappoint me."

Disappearing in a flash of black mist, Draksin reappeared behind Sora in the same manner and leg-swept him. In the short second that the Chosen Keyblader floated in midair with his back to the floor, Draksin planted a gloved fist into Sora's abdomen and made the boy slam hard into the ground. Placing a boot on Sora's chest, Draksin calmly said, "You really should work on staying on my good side."

"As if you have one…" Sora strained to say under Draksin's boot.

As a reply, Draksin knelt down and placed his whole hand over Sora's face and squeezed tightly. Earning a few groans of angst from the boy, Draksin added, "And I really think you should keep that mouth closed more."

Draksin mercifully relinquished his grip from around Sora's face and stepped off of him. Quickly, Sora rolled away from the dark lord and sluggishly stood to his feet. Glaring at the Dark One, he wrathfully informed him, "I hate you so much…"

"Hm…that sounds like something Roxas would say. Listen, Sora, since you're going to join me conscious or not, we might as well get along with each other."

Sora retorted, "I'll never join you, let alone call you a friend of mine…"

Shaking his head, Draksin meaningfully looked into Sora's eyes and continued, "But I want to develop a close, trusting relationship with you. I'd like to endearingly take you up and teach you everything I know. And while I do, I also want you to look up to me and think of me like a father."

Giving Draksin an intense scowl, Sora declared fiercely, "I already _have_ a father…"

* * *

Jak sneezed. Daxter responded, "Gesundheit."

The heroes had migrated outside where the battle between Crash and Mavo was raging on. Currently, everyone accept Bentley was gazing up at the deadly clash. The brainy turtle was fiddling with a telephone-sized communicator in his hands, trying to get a descent radio signal.

Bentley spoke into the communicator, "Mario—do you read me? Pick up, Mario!"

A grainy voice that belonged to none other than the plumber himself resonated from the communicator's speakers with much static, _"Yeah, yeah, I'm flyin' in right now, Brainiac."_

Just then, a black Mojo Blast rocketed into the ground next to the heroes, causing them all to jump in surprise. Hastily, Bentley asked, "Can I get a time estimate on your arrival?"

"_Gimme about two…three minutes, and I'll be dere."_

Jak, who had been tasked with holding Riku's paralyzed body upright with one of the boy's arms pulled over his shoulder, urgently asked, "How much longer do we have to wait here?"

Bentley answered, "He said he'd be here in two or three minutes. In the meantime, we need to stay out of their way!"

By "their," Bentley was talking about Crash and Mavo and their raging battle, which repeatedly bounced between land and air. Flying from behind the unsuspecting doctor, Crash prepped his sword for a clean strike through Mavo's back. However, at the last second, the clever doctor turned around and used one of his lengthy claw-arms to ward off Crash's attack.

Mavo proceeded to spin like a mad top with both of his deadly claws at Crash. Freaking out, Crash ducked down before getting decapitated, resulting in a few of his Mohawk hairs being sliced off.

Peeved, Crash cried, "HEY! Watch the hair, jerk!"

"Aw, you don't like your haircut, rodent?" Demon Mavo asked. "Let's move a little lower to your neck, then."

Crash parried an overhead claw-arm strike but failed to dodge a slash from Mavo's second arm. Retaining a gash across his bare abdomen, Crash vaulted backward and felt blood drench his yellow fur. Grimacing, Crash kept his gaze on the chuckling doctor floating a few yards ahead of him.

"We're getting closer to your neck!" Mavo announced joyously, letting the red liquid drip from the tip of his arm-blade.

Back on the ground, Keira asked, "What's wrong with Crash? He looks hurt!"

Coco answered energetically, "If he is, then that means he's about to go all out and take Mavo to school—bandicoot style!"

Things were looking bad for Crash; his left palm was still badly cut, and now his belly was suffering an even more painful injury. Still, Crash readily held his father's sword in his hands with a wide smirk spreading across his face. This caused Mavo's steady laughter to slowly fade. The demented doctor asked, "Do you think your death is amusing, bandicoot?"

"Not at all…" Crash answered, panting. "It's just that…you're pushing me farther than Reiden did."

"Yeah, and?"

"Now, I've gotta go all out and take you to school—bandicoot style!"

Crash powered up and dashed through the air with hedgehog-comparable speeds. Mavo blocked the Mojo-powered bandicoot's downward slash with both of his claw-arms crossed over each other like an "X".

"Is that it?" Mavo asked disappointedly.

Throwing a high kick into Crash's chin, Mavo followed up with another roundhouse kick, which Crash dodged and quickly readied another strike with his sword. The blade cut across Mavo's chest, springing a slow leak of black liquid from it. Mavo laughed at this and said, "One major difference between you and me is that my blood is fueled by fear. Flesh wounds are so insignificant to me…"

Crash retorted with a disturbed expression, "Whoa—emo!"

Mavo sent a flurry of blade-arm swings Crash's way, all of which the heroic bandicoot dodged except for the last one, which resulted in a deep wound across his left shoulder. Crash cried out in pain, music to Demon Mavo's ears.

Coco also let out a shriek of terror from the ground, "Crash!"

"We need to help him!" Ratchet suddenly interjected. "At this rate, Mavo will either kill him first or let him bleed to death!"

Suddenly, a rather familiar voice resounded from behind the heroes, "Allow me to handle this, children!"

Everyone looked back to see a burst of multicolored light surging through the air and upward toward Crash and Mavo's battle. As Mavo had readied his other claw-arm to fatally maim the bleeding bandicoot in the heart, the talking light source had swiftly positioned itself between the two combatants to protect the ailing marsupial. Perplexed in every way, Mavo backed off from the materializing sight of Aku Aku in front of him. The smiling tribal mask turned to Crash and asked, "Need a boost?"

Crash's face lit up as he greeted, "Aku Aku! Yeah, I sure could use one about now!"

In a bright flash of light, the witchdoctor disappeared, and when Crash's and Mavo's vision equilibrated, they both came to notice that the bandicoot's body was ignited with white flames dancing about his outline. Feeling refreshed and revitalized, Crash held his sword defensively and said, "Alright, let's start round three."

Mavo growled shortly before he erupted in black flames all around his body. Both fear-fueled demon and Mojo-powered marsupial charged at each other high above the other heroes on the ground. At the same time, those said heroes were squinting in the distance to spot an aircraft flying from over a distant mountain's horizon.

Goofy cheered, "Hooray! Mario's here!"

"It's about time," Bentley remarked. "I thought he'd never show up!"

The aircraft flew in close enough for everyone to examine it in all its busted glory. It was light gray-colored and rather box-shaped and clunky, but it still had two wings and a cockpit like every other plane. It was…definitely not something the U.S. Air Force would fly into battle. Heck, I doubt even Reiden's skeletal army would use the flying hunk of metal that Mario was piloting. Speaking of Mario, after the aircraft landed on rickety, extendable legs, a wooden, slide-out panel from the bottom slid onto the ground, and out came the middle-aged plumber himself.

Seeing the disappointed, confused, and "what the flippn' heck is this" looks from his fellow heroes, Mario raised both of his hands and steadily explained, "Look, I know it ain't much, but it'll get the job done."

From Link's shoulder, Daxter complained, "What a piece of JUNK!"

With a moderately offended look, Mario sarcastically said, "Gee, thanks, this was actually given to me by my uncle before he died in war. I bet ya feel like a douche, now."

_**2. Love Brings Us Home Again**_

All heroes (save Crash Bandicoot, who was still battling to the death with Mavo up in the sky) agreed the old and busted aircraft would manage as a salvageable getaway vehicle and quickly bounded inside. While the outside of the vehicle looked atrocious, the inside was surprisingly roomy and comfortable to regroup in.

The _Iron Toadstool_ buzzed and trembled in preparation. Steadily, the clunky vehicle made liftoff with its noisy thrusters charging into the air, scouting the mountainous landscape for Sora.

At the head of the ship, Mario sat at the controls and announced dispassionately, "Welcome aboard the _Iron Toadstool._ Please shut up, and don't bother me while I'm drivin'."

Just behind the cockpit of the ship was the wide cabin, about the size of a McDonald's bathroom, so our heroes weren't too cramped. On opposite sides of the cabin were medium-quality benches for them to sit on, and in the center of it was a lone white table, which was probably used for eating, poker-playing, or maybe even romantic purposes. But right now, it was being used for Riku's paralyzed body. (Everyone declared that Crunch's dead weight would break the table.)

Kairi was standing next to her unconscious friend, long yearning for him to wake up from his perpetual nightmare. She quietly begged, "Please come back to us, Riku. We need your help to save Sora…"

At that moment, when Kairi grabbed Riku's limp hand, she became lightheaded and felt herself being forcefully vaulted into a different reality. She found herself in a completely black world, surrounded by nothing but dark clouds. She wasn't alone, however; Riku was standing adjacent to the princess with his hand still wrapped in hers.

"Riku?" Kairi started, barely grasping what was happening.

The silver-haired teen gave a sad smile before greeting, "Hey. I was starting to think I'd be in here all by myself."

"Where are we?" Kairi asked, letting go of Riku's hand.

He explained, "After Mavo tortured me nonstop, everything sort of swirled into this black nothingness. It feels like I've been alone for an eternity."

Kairi noticed Riku had turned away to not face her. She curiously asked, "Was being tortured your fear?"

"Not really…"

Slowly, Riku sat down on the invisible floor and gestured for Kairi to join him. As she did so, he asked, "You remember when we were younger, and me and Sora were always trying to compete for your attention?"

Still not quite understanding what the boy was getting at, Kairi nodded and said, "Yeah, of course I do."

"Well…I used to have feelings for you. And even though I know you and Sora have this confusing, silly, borderline-dumb, teenaged-drama relationship going, I can't help but still have those feelings for you."

Kairi's face reddened. "Oh…"

Riku shook his head and tried quickly explaining his explanation, "Look, I know it's stupid—"

"No, it's not, Riku," the princess of heart interrupted. "I bet you've been keeping this locked inside through all your adventures, haven't you?"

Looking down and away from the redhead, Riku uttered, "Yeah, sort of…"

"But that's okay, now that you've told me. You can't block the way you feel. You can only hope for change in the best way possible—even if it means letting go. Besides, there's no way someone like you can't find a girlfriend."

His expression lightening up, Riku asked, "Really?"

"Yeah, of course!" Kairi broke the fourth wall for a second to say, "Haven't you seen your fanbase? They love you!"

Riku chuckled. "Thanks."

"No prob. Now, we've got a certain Keyblade Master to save. You with me?" Kairi outstretched her hand to Riku and made it into a fist.

Riku nodded confidently and made a fist of his own. "Yeah, let's go."

The two friends fist-bumped, creating a beacon of light in the dark zone they had once been trapped in. The light increased dramatically and then quickly faded to reveal that they had returned to the interior of the _Iron Toadstool,_ Mario's prized aircraft.

Riku opened his eyes and sat up from the table, his hand still in Kairi's. From this sudden act of resurrection, the other heroes sitting on the benches on either side of the table perked up and vivaciously welcomed the silver-haired Keyblader back to reality.

"He's alive!" Coco suddenly shrieked. "Thank the lord almighty, Riku's alive again!"

"I wasn't dead—!" Riku tried clarifying.

"Man, I thought he was dead," Ratchet ignorantly commented.

Keira asked, "How'd you bring him back, Kairi?"

"Not sure," the princess answered earnestly. "We just kinda connected."

Coco said, "Well, that's fine and dandy. Will ya work some of that redhead-magic on Crunch?"

Seeing no harm, Kairi agreed, "Sure."

Kairi strolled across the ship's cabin to kneel next to the burly bandicoot, who was motionlessly leaning against a wall. She was about to grab onto his hand until she stopped and turned to face everyone else. "Um…guys? Crunch is sleeping."

Indeed, it was true. The red-furred bandicoot was casually snoring lowly to himself with his eyelids half closed. Kairi playfully poked his nose, causing Crunch unconsciously swat her hand away.

"Well, whadaya know," Murray remarked. "How did we miss that?"

Jak shrugged and directed everyone's attention to himself, "Anyway—guys, we need to keep our eyes peeled for Sora. Draksin could've taken him anywhere."

At the mention of the dark lord's name, Sly Cooper felt a tremor go up his spine. He was still having that eerie feeling that he had met Draksin somewhere…

The raccoon must have been gazing blankly in thought, because Daxter snapped his fingers in front of Sly's face and said, "Earth to Cooper. Do ya read me?"

"Yeah…sorry."

* * *

_**3. The Storm Begins**_

Draksin vaulted backwards to easily avoid Sora's swing of his Keyblade. With his arms folded, Draksin wearily asked, "Are you finished?"

Sora retaliated, "No way! I'm not stopping until you kill me or I kill you!"

Rolling his eyes, Draksin suddenly disappeared from his position in a small dispersal of black mist and reappeared behind Sora like a phantom. The dark lord roundhouse kicked the Keyblader across his back, sending him to the dirty ground again.

From the ground, and without looking back, Sora raised his Keyblade to the dark lord and shouted, "Light!"

Suddenly, a bolt of light erupted from Sora's Ultima and barely missed Draksin's face, destroying a stalactite behind him. Even so, the brooding man didn't seem happy about this at all. He barked, "Stupid boy! They teach you nothing in school these days!"

"Tell me about it…" Sora muttered with a look of agreement. However, he quickly glared again and said, "So I guess this whole 'me joining you' thing has blown over?"

Sneering, Draksin said, "Not quite."

Disappearing and reappearing inches in front of Sora, Draksin landed a hard punch in the boy's face. Standing Sora up, Draksin sent three punches into his stomach and finished with an uppercut to the jaw. For a split, dizzying second, Sora was airborne, and Draksin used his phantomlike move to appear behind Sora, ready to deliver a heavy kick to the boy's side.

Sora landed on the ground with a few tumbles. Propping himself up to his hands and knees, he clutched the sore area of his side in agony. Draksin causally walked right next to Sora and randomly asked, "Do you like fireworks, Sora?"

Impulsively, Sora answered, "They're fun to watch on New Year's…"

"Well, I like seeing them more often than that. Soon, I want to see them everyday. Together, we can make that happen," Draksin mused.

Standing to his feet yet again, Sora rejected, "Sorry, still not interested."

Losing his patience, Draksin snarled, "Then maybe a little of my own pyrotechnics will change your mind." The Dark One raised his gloved hand high over his head, and seemingly nothing else happened.

This caused Sora to comment, "You're losing your touch, old man."

Keeping his hand in the air and not taking any offense to the reference about his age, Draksin merely grinned and suggested, "Why don't you take a look outside…"

Outside, high above the mountains where Crash and Mavo were continuing their fateful battle, hazy, purple clouds formed in the blue sky. Without a warning, violet-shaded lightning bolts began to strike various locations of the mountain, creating fires.

Crash and Mavo had to narrowly dodge these bolts of energy, seeing as how they were at an incredibly high altitude and very close to the purple clouds. Nonetheless, they continued their battle, which seemed to be flipping in Crash's favor.

Crash released a series of rapid slashes to Mavo's torso, doing enough damage to merely stun the doctor for a few seconds. In that precious time, the white-glowing bandicoot positioned his sword like a spear in his hand and made to stab downward into Mavo's chest. However, the demented demon-doctor wised up and swiftly floated to the side in a blur of black and gray. As a counterattack, Mavo raised one of his claw-arms and impaled Crash right in the heart.

Laughing, Demon Mavo snarled, "I win, rodent!"

However, on closer inspection, Mavo's declaration was definitely not the case. In actuality, Crash had caught the claw-arm's tip with his right hand and was holding it at bay. He didn't know if Mavo's sharp appendage was cutting into his flesh or not; he couldn't feel any pain whatsoever. Looking into Mavo's baffled, blue eyes, Crash smiled and said, "Far from it, Doctor Dweeb-O!"

With his other furry, blood-soaked hand, Crash rammed his fist into the doctor's jaw and released a heavy downward slash of his sword across Mavo's body. Not only did the blade cut him deeply, but it also sent his demonic body flying down towards the side of the mountain with a hefty "Crash." (See what I did there?)

Flying immediately after the doctor, Crash landed on the slanted crater Mavo had created on the mountainside, just above the laboratory. A lightning bolt suddenly zapped the spot adjacent to Mavo's body, which had now reverted to its human form.

Crash looked up to find that the lightning storms were getting worse. The bolts of energy were touching down all over the place, resulting in numerous wildfires. The bandicoot urgently looked back at the battered, bleeding, and unconscious villain lying down in front of him. Raising his sword to impale the doctor, Crash thought out loud, "Better make this quick while he's still unconscious…"

Suddenly, the human doctor gasped awake and begged, "Wait—don't kill me! Please take pity on me!"

Crash narrowed his eyes skeptically.

With his hand desperately gesturing for the bandicoot to keep away, Mavo begged, "I…I can't even walk right now!"

This was all starting to feel familiar, yet different in a way. He had let Reiden live before. He had seen goodness in the ex-emperor's eyes. But right now, in the pitiful scientist's eyes, all he saw was genuine fear. This made Crash feel like a monster.

Mavo continued pleading, "I-I was only following Draksin's orders! Trust me—I'll never work for him again! He double crossed and lied to me! Please…I'm weak right now!"

Crash's sensibility was faltering. He was prone to take mercy on his enemies. Steadily, he lowered his sword.

However, none of Crash's battling thoughts mattered. A purple lightning bolt zapped a rocky part of the mountain above them, causing a torrent of large, jagged rocks to tumble down. The rocks pummeled Mavo's weak and fragile frame, and Crash barely had enough time to leap backwards and fly into the air to avoid being crushed himself. Just then, the _Iron Toadstool_ flew right above Crash and hovered in place thanks to some manually deployed electrical fans that popped out the ship's bottom.

Crash stared at the ship's thirty-dollar electrical fans with dismay. He started, "What kinda cheap ride—?"

Suddenly, Mario appeared from the opened hatch in the bottom of the ship and chastised, "Just get in the friggin' ship, ya nincompoop!"

When Crash finally decided to enter the low-budget aircraft, he was greeted halfheartedly by his allies.

"Did you put the smack down on Mavo?" The Murray asked seriously with his arms crossed.

Crash nodded. "Definitely. I didn't finish the job, though. Some huge rocks did it for me." Crash looked to the side in apprehension.

Coco detected her brother's slight nervousness and asked in a patronizing tone, "Crash…are you sure Mavo is dead?"

Crash quickly cut his eyes back to Coco. "Yeah. He was weak when I left him, so he's at least in a world of pain right now."

Looking at Crash's bleeding, battle-torn body, Clank was the first to comment, "Crash, you look awful! You need medical attention right away!"

"Tell me about it!" Crash replied. "I sure wish someone told me that Mavo's arm-thing was SHARP!"

Observing Crash's multiple cut wounds, Daxter zinged, "What, you didn't figure it out the first six times you got cut?"

Keira and Donald immediately came to Crash's first aid and began administering channels of Green Eco and magic Cure spells. Suddenly, the marsupial's body began glowing, and Aku Aku appeared next to him in a small burst of light. The floating mask commented, "Whew! That was a doozy."

Meanwhile, Jak, Link, Kairi, Goofy, and Riku were all cramped inside the _Iron Toadstool's_ cockpit with an annoyed Mario. While the plumber drove between the lethal lightning bolts, the others were desperately scanning every inch of the mountainous landscape down below through the ship's windshield.

"You say he just grabbed Sora and vanished?" Riku recounted, trying to get the facts straight.

"Yeah," Kairi answered.

Jak admitted, "I've got the feeling that those two are long gone from these mountains. We'll die if we stay here any longer."

Goofy reluctantly agreed, "He's gotta point, ya know."

Mario cut in, "So we can finally leave this stinkin' place?"

Link answered, "Yes, Captain Mario, fly us to safety!"

Despite being taken on an alternate route away from the lightning-ravaged mountain, Kairi still looked out the windshield, looking for the Chosen Keyblader…

* * *

_**4. No Soldier Left Behind**_

A gloved fist swept itself across Sora's cheek, making the boy fall to the ground in a heap on his back. A heavy boot was forcefully stamped on his chest, making him gasp for air as his lungs were mercilessly compressed against his ribcage. Sora weakly coughed and wheezed, drowning out the sharp cracking sounds of lightning striking all over the mountain from outside of the cave. Glaring up at Draksin, Sora sputtered, "Is that all?"

"So headstrong," was all Draksin had to say. He raised his foot and quickly stamped back down on Sora again, causing the injured Keyblader's head to lurch upward in agony. "Had enough, boy?"

Sora's eyes glazed over as he stared up at the cave's spiky ceiling. He only uttered one name: "Kairi…"

Back in the _Iron Toadstool_, Kairi suddenly broke from her trance. She requested, more like demanded, "We need to go back to the mountain."

By now, the _Iron Toadstool _was about a mile away from the lightning-riddled mountain, a mile away from the purple cloud hanging over it. Mario asked, "Are you serious? I thought we already tackled this issue, kid!"

More tactfully, Link reminded, "Sora's probably not even over there, Kairi."

"No—I know he's over there! I just felt his Light fading—he's being tortured by Draksin!" Kairi shouted.

Jak, Goofy, and Riku exchanged odd looks. The royal knight asked, "Are ya sure?"

"Yes! If we get closer, I think I could pinpoint exactly where he is!"

"Whoa, whoa—what do ya mean YOU THINK?" Mario objected. "I ain't flyin' us back in no danger-zone just 'cuz you gotta premonition—!"

The look Mario suddenly received from the livid princess thoroughly changed his mind. Kairi shakily said through gritted teeth, "Turn the ship back _now." _

Sighing, Mario reluctantly turned the steering wheel and muttered, "Maybe I should introduce you to my fiancé…"

The _Iron Toadstool's_ rickety thrusters kicked in and blasted the ship back towards the mountain. As they flew deeper into the warzone of haphazard bolts of energy, Kairi felt Sora's fading beacon of Light become nearer. As she had dictated earlier, she was starting to pinpoint where the fading Light source was located.

Looking at the mountain that they were fast approaching, Kairi's sixth sense picked up an ephemeral flash of light as it erupted from a crooked entrance to a cave. She pointed and informed, "In there! That cave is where he's keeping Sora!"

"Alright," Jak replied, loading ammo into his Blaster rifle. He stepped into the cabin, where the other heroes had been anxiously overhearing the heated conversations. Jak announced, "We're going back to save Sora."

Daxter jumped up on the table and immediately questioned, "Why didn't I get the memo about this?"

"Sorry, Dax," Jak replied. "Ratchet, Clank—I need you guys to help me hold off Draksin. We probably won't be getting Sora without a fight."

"Got it!" the duo responded in unison.

"And Link, I need you to get Sora out of there and on the ship!"

The Hylian nodded and obliged, "Understood."

Jak looked at his ottsel friend, who was currently whistling and looking in the other direction, and said, "You're comin', too, Dax."

Daxter swore, "Ah, shi—"

"Jak, what about me?" Kairi interrupted.

"You'll be staying on the ship," Jak answered curtly.

Mario flew up near the entrance of the cave and deployed the cheap fans to make the ship hover in place. He turned around and shouted, "Make this quick! I don't like floatin' in one place for too long."

"Yes, Captiain!" Link replied. He looked to Jak, Daxter, Ratchet, and Clank and readily said, "Shall we go?"

Jak nodded and began opening the ship's bottom hatch to exit. As he did so, Kairi summoned the courage to protest, "But Sora needs me! I have to go!"

Sliding the hatch open, Jak peevishly snapped, "Do as I say and stay _here!"_

Clank, on the other hand, tried a different tactic. "This is a dangerous mission, Miss Kairi. We are only looking out for you."

Daxter added, "But if I were you, I still wouldn't piss 'long, pale, and gruesome' off."

Jak, Daxter, Ratchet, Clank, and Link all looked down through the ship's rectangular opening, staring at the cave entrance below. The Lombax volunteered, "Clank and I will go first! You ready, Clank?"

"As always!" Clank replied, attaching himself to Ratchet's back.

The duo leapt down to the mountain, the furrier of the two yelling, "JERONIMO!"

"Our turn!" Jak yelled, taking Daxter and leaping after them.

However, before Link could have his turn to jump, a certain princess shoved past him and dove down to the mountain below. Along with Riku and Keira, the Hylian warrior shouted before leaping after her, "KAIRI!"

_**5. A Dark Lord's Quiet Rampage **_

Meanwhile, back in the dark bowels of the cave, Draksin still had his foot stamped down on the nearly broken Sora. In a flash of black smoke, the large sword that the late Dr. Mavo had forged for him, dubbed the Sin Blade, appeared in Draksin's right hand. He lowered the tip of the blade to Sora's neck, daring to deal a lethal incision.

"Have you changed your mind yet, Sora?" Draksin questioned with a twisted smirk.

Sora didn't respond. He continued to motionlessly lie on the ground, staring up at the jagged, rocky ceiling of the cave, continuously thinking of only one person. Before his eyes slid closed, a battle cry from a familiar orange ottsel could be heard from the cave's narrow entrance, "Party's over!"

Draksin stepped off of Sora and moved his blade away from the boy's neck to inspect the newcomers. He widened his golden eyes at the sight of Jak and Ratchet, both with their respective sidekicks, aiming guns at him. Draksin dismissed his Sin Blade in a puff of black smoke and crossed his arms at the unwelcomed guests.

"You're dead!" Jak declared, pulling the trigger of his weapon multiple times. Ratchet followed suit, deploying round after round of bullets from his Constructo Pistol.

Draksin only grinned evilly as he disappeared in a small burst of black mist and reappeared a few feet away from his original position to dodge the frantic bullets being fired by Jak and Ratchet. Draksin continued doing his phantomlike technique, appearing and reappearing in various locations, dodging every bullet but never getting too close to the shooting heroes.

Jak and Ratchet honed their aim and let off more shots at the Dark One. Draksin suddenly disappeared again but, this time, he appeared in midair, stylishly rolling horizontally to dodge both of the heroes' shots. Before Draksin landed, he once again disappeared in a puff of black mist to dodge more bullets and reappeared in between the two heroes. He quickly backhanded Ratchet, sending the Lombax and mini-bot skidding to the ground. As a follow up, he made to roundhouse kick Jak, but the blonde hero was quick to duck down. Daxter, however, lagged above Jak and painfully received the kick in his small body, slamming into the side of a stalagmite with a frightened yelp.

Jak whirled his Blaster rifle over to Draksin's face, wasting no time in squeezing the trigger. Draksin quickly, yet casually moved the tip of the rifle inches away from his pale face, not even blinking his acid-yellow eyes when the weapon fired, nearly implanting ammunition in his mug. Jak carefully walked backwards and kept repositioning the rifle's end to the center of Draksin's face, all while firing the weapon like mad. As this happened, Draksin merely walked after the long-eared hero, smirking and constantly moving the gun's tip away from his face before it fired.

At that moment, Link and Kairi had entered the cave, much to the green warrior's reluctance. Since then wasn't the time to argue (and Kairi wasn't going to listen to reason, anyway) they both scanned the cave's interior for Sora and quickly sprinted toward the fallen, half-conscious boy.

Sora opened his eyes and his vision blurred to proper focus, the redhead's face being the first thing he saw. He looked to his right to see Link desperately lifting his arm over his shoulder and hoisting the boy up. Kairi had pulled Sora's other arm over her shoulder and together, the trio began to hastily make their way for the cave's entrance, or in their case, the exit.

Meanwhile, Jak had had enough of shooting and barely missing Draksin's face. He held his Morph Gun like a bat and swung it at the dark lord, who adeptly caught it, wrenched it away from him, and broke it in half with a simple flex of the hand.

For two seconds, Jak looked at the damage Draksin had easily caused to his gun. After those two seconds expended, the two halves of Jak's Morph Gun hit the floor simultaneously as the blonde hero was lifted three feet off the ground by a tight choke-hold around his neck, courtesy of the dark lord Draksin Mefisto.

Draksin's free hand started to sparkle purple lightning. Slowly, he raised it like a spear in front Jak's chest and said, "So you're the one Sora admires so much. I think I'll show him, you, and everyone else here just how black your heart is by ripping it out…"

Just then, Ratchet had drawn his electric boxing glove-like weapon, the Walloper and began charging at Draksin. The dark lord heard the Lombax coming, dropped Jak to the ground, and swiftly whirled around to catch Ratchet's punch. At first, Draksin hadn't expected an electrical shock from the glove, but he quickly overcame the voltage with his own dark energy and delivered a dazing uppercut to Ratchet's chin.

This heavy attack caused the Lombax and mini-bot to fly upward and unintentionally separate from each other in midair. Draksin commenced his phantom move and reappeared a few inches above Ratchet's dazed body only to drive his fist into the feline commando's stomach, drilling him back to the ground again. Draksin stood up straight again and caught Clank's robot body without looking.

Before he could inflict any imminent damage to the frightened robot, a female voice shouted, "Fire!"

A ball of flame shot through the air for Draksin's head. He merely craned his neck to dodge it and sought out who had cast the spell in the first place. He saw Kairi and Link making off with his soon-to-be apprentice. Dropping Clank to the ground, Draksin soon figured out who had attacked him and gave a small sigh. He didn't like hurting women. Wait, what was he thinking? Of course he did.

Link commanded to Sora and Kairi, "We must hurry!"

However, Draksin had a different plan. Using telekinesis, he lifted the trio off of the ground and forced them to float in place, halting their escape. With a flick of his wrist, Link and Sora had gone flying into the side of the cave, dizzily sliding to the ground. Meanwhile, Kairi was still floating in the air, doing her best to break free from Draksin's telekinetic grasp. Wordlessly, the dark lord meandered over to her and examined her thoroughly from top to bottom.

Irritation and fear swirling inside her, Kairi brashly commanded, "Put me down!"

No response. He just kept looking at her, almost through her.

The crimson-haired princess growled, "Maybe you should take a picture!"

"Hmph." Draksin flicked his fingers forward, triggering Kairi to fly backward and tumble across the ground. She landed on her back, causing her to arch her spine upward in an unintentionally provocative manner. Draksin hardly realized he had already started walking after the girl; he indifferently blamed it on the force of habit and towered over her, blankly glaring down at his easy prey. Kneeling down next to her, he said to her for the first time in the form of a rather disheartening question: "Are the other six princesses as foolish as you?"

Without thinking, Kairi rocketed her foot as hard as she could into the one and only weakness Draksin could possibly have…

Not even waiting to see the results, the princess got up and fled the scene, joining Sora and Link. The trio migrated over to Daxter, who was still stuck to the wall, and collected him, along with Ratchet, Clank, and Jak. By this time, Draksin had gathered himself together again and seemed to not be in any more pain. He did look extremely ticked, however.

The heroes had been successful in escaping the cave. Up above, the lightning storm wasn't getting any better, and the Iron Toadstool's right wing looked like it had been blown off by a bolt of lightning. The wooden bottom hatch slid down, allowing for a short ramp to walk on.

Jak, Ratchet, Link, Kairi, and Sora piled into the ship, where Sly Cooper had immediately commanded Mario to start flying away from there. However, the ship remained unresponsive as Mario tried switching it from Hover Mode to Flight Mode.

"You gotta be flippin' kiddin' me…" Mario cursed under his breath. "She ain't movin'!"

"What?" Sly exclaimed. "Well, keep trying!"

"Gee, what a superb idea!" Mario shouted sarcastically.

Meanwhile, Link, Kairi, and Sora were still exhaustedly sitting outside of the ship on the _Iron Toadstool's_ ramp/hatch, where they still had a clear view of the cave's mouth. Fearfully staring into the cave's gaping entrance, Link asked, "What's taking that plumber so long? Draksin will emerge any second!"

Proving his anticipations true, Draksin walked from the cave's dark bowels into the daylight. His angry expression suddenly softened into a confident grin as he shouted over the hum of the _Iron Toadstool's _revving engines_, _"You'll end up just like me, Sora!"

With Kairi and Link on either side of him, Sora shouted back, "Don't bet on it!"

"You will! You shall fall to darkness just like I have!"

The _Iron Toadstool's_ engines finally kicked in much to Mario's satisfaction. The bulky aircraft steadily began drifting away from the evil lord as Sora yelled, "No way!"

Draksin shouted even louder, "Don't you understand? We're destined to walk the same path!"

"NEVER!" Sora bellowed over the bustling engines.

"Oh, come now, Sora! You act like you've never heard the saying before—like father, like son!"

* * *

_Whatever you do, DO NOT spoil this revelation in a review, or I will remove it. Yeah, I just threatened to REMOVE a review._


	71. The Catalyst II

**Chapter 71: The Catalyst II**

It sounded absolutely horrible. Not just because Sora's uncontrollable screaming was earsplitting in particular, but it was mainly the fact that no one had ever heard the boy in so much pain.

At first, Sora had given the dark lord a distrusting squint as he just sat there, dumbfounded, outside on the ship's slide-out ramp with Kairi and Link on either side of him. Then, painful logic set in, and physical similarities between he and Draksin started to jump at him from every angle. Their cranial shapes, their smiles and grins, and even the bases of their voices all seemed to have a frighteningly similar relation.

When Sora, becoming horrified beyond what any toxin could ever do to him, examined the utter, triumphant truthfulness in Draksin's acidic yellow eyes, he let out the most aggrieved cry of terror he had ever made. Even when the _Iron Toadstool's_ thrusters had rocketed the ship away from the evil being, Sora wouldn't stop screaming; Kairi tried calming him down by holding his shoulders still, but to no avail.

Distressed from the boy's yelling, Jak called from the cabin, "Just get him on the ship!"

Link obliged and hurriedly dragged the screaming Keyblader into the ship's cabin. Sora seemed to be protesting as he wildly kicked and swung his arms at anyone or anything that got near him. Murray had helped Link hoist Sora up onto the white table in the middle of the cabin. Jak and Ratchet tried holding the boy's flailing arms down while Riku struggled to hold his legs.

Suppressed, Sora only screamed louder as his mental and emotional breakdown worsened. "NOOOOO!" Sora bellowed.

"Sora, snap out of it!" Riku pled, still struggling to keep Sora's feet under control.

"AAAAAH!" Sora continued screaming, nothing getting through to him.

Keira warned Jak, "If he begins to have a seizure, we need to let him go!"

"Then what are we supposed to do now?" Jak desperately asked.

Bentley urgently interjected his suggestion, "He's having a mental breakdown…so to prevent a seizure, we're supposed to loosen his shirt so he can breathe properly!"

Jak ordered, "Sly, open his shirt!"

"On it!" Sly replied, pulling open Sora's vest and ripping his blue shirt down the middle. However, Sly had stopped midway on account of a strange development within Sora's physical appearance.

By now, Sora's eyes had filled up with tears, and speaking of those eyes, they had turned golden yellow again, but that wasn't the strangest change in Sora's appearance. His brown spiky hair had now turned into an ashy black color, mirroring Draksin Mefisto's own dark image.

Coco observed amongst the chaos, "He isn't shaking all over. We might have stopped him from having a seizure!"

To Sora, everyone's voices started echoing in his head. Soon, his screams stopped and he finally fell silent. Slowly, he slipped away into unconsciousness. Breathing hard, Jak said, "Poor kid…"

"I don't believe it…" Link started, shaking his head. "How can he be the son of _him?"_

Crash sympathetically said, looking at the sword in his hands and thinking of his own unknown kindred, "That's…just horrible."

Sly pointed out, "This is what I was thinking about earlier back in the lab. Draksin looked a lot like…you know…"

Sora could hear the heroes' chitchat in his blackened state. To him, the voices were disembodied and had no meaning or value. Floating along a black abyss, almost as if he were swimming in air, he nonchalantly figured he had lost himself in his own mind. He didn't even mind that he was all alone, drifting by himself in his own disjointed thoughts. Completely separated from conscious thought, Sora found himself standing on absolutely nothing.

Suddenly, the blackness beneath him erupted into a hundred flying doves, giving way to a brilliantly lit, stain glass mural. The bright, circular mural he stood on appeared to hold the image of a sleeping, black-haired version of himself. Sora glanced up, watching as the doves flew away in their flock. As he did so, his dark shadow stretched out behind him on the mural and actually began to take the surreal outline of Draksin himself.

Sora's Draksin-shaped shadow stood up on the mural and finally materialized into the dark lord in the flesh. Draksin crossed his arms and blankly stared at the back of Sora's head. Almost as if he knew that the Dark One was standing behind him, Sora sadly looked down and abruptly closed his cerulean eyes.

After more moments of deafening silence, Draksin broke it. "Hello again, Vanitas."

"That's not my name…" Sora emptily stated.

Draksin wandered right next to the Keyblader, who chose not to acknowledge that he had done so. Draksin continued, "It's the name I gave you. In full, you were supposed to be called Vanitas Lucifer Mefisto."

Sora only kept his glare affixed to the colorful mural down below. He wanted to forget those names as soon as he heard them. Then, from the crevices of his mind, he suddenly remembered what his mother, Mara, had told him before he left for Wumpa Island with Jeycko: _"Oh, and if you run into your father out there, do punch him in the stomach for me, please."_ (1)

Draksin kept ranting, nonetheless, "Seventeen years ago, I was sent into the Realm of Oblivion by Jeycko's father and Orphco. Then, ten months later, you were born in Destiny Islands. You can blame those precursors for our estranged relationship."

_As if I really care about the reason why he never came to play catch with me all these years_, the distraught boy thought to himself darkly. Still, he refused to give a response to the man standing beside him. The moment Sora had learned the truth, he had lost the number one weapon Draksin couldn't overpower: his Light.

The dark lord asked, "So, through all of this unpleasantness, I'm guessing you're still steadfast in your decision to not join me?"

Sora leveled his gaze with the infinite blackness ahead of him. With a final tone of acceptance, Sora assured, "Yes. I'll never join you."

Draksin sighed. "That's what I was afraid of." In a cloud of black mist, the Sin Blade appeared in his right hand. The yellow eyeball near the shoulder of the sword erratically moved around as Draksin finished, "Now, I must harvest your heart."

Taking a few steps back, Draksin stood five feet behind Sora and prepared to impale him in his back. The Keyblader readily stood tall, bracing his body for whatever may happen.

Draksin's mouth curved into a grin. "Suit yourself, boy."

However, the Sin Blade's lethal course was stopped short, almost as if it had collided into a brick wall. Draksin's golden eyes widened in disbelief after realizing that a radiant source of light had appeared in the form of a certain princess of heart, who stood with her arms spread out in front of Sora. She had her back against the boy's, protecting him and herself somehow from Draksin's deadly demonic sword.

Try as he might, he just couldn't push the sword to pierce Kairi's chest; the Sin Blade would just keep halting any further movement as if Kairi and the sword were two magnets with similar polarities. The girl had a fearful yet undoubtedly brave look on her face, probably wishing over anything that her barrier of Light wouldn't fall.

Draksin reached out a frustrated hand to grasp Kairi's throat, but his glove began to sizzle before it touched her and a painfully hot sting flared through his fingertips. Recoiling his hand, Draksin gave Kairi a reproachful glare, but wound up withdrawing his Sin Blade. He realized that he needed to get out of here, out of Sora's mind. As long as that girl was here protecting him, he couldn't even control Sora without risking damage to his own dark wellbeing. With an indifferent grunt, the dark lord turned his back on the teens and disappeared in a puff of black mist, leaving Sora's mind for good this time.

Besides, Draksin didn't desire to get kicked in the crotch again.

* * *

After Sora had finally calmed down and fallen asleep in the _Iron Toadstool_, our heroes decided to move his body to the floor so he didn't fall off of the table if the ship experienced turbulence. Jak had carefully propped the boy into a slouching, sitting position against the wall of the ship's cabin. Along some point in time, Kairi had joined Sora and fell asleep sitting next to him with both of her arms wrapped around his waistline. Unbeknownst to anyone else, Sora's ash-black hair reverted back to its brown hue, and though his eyelids were delicately shut, one could surmise that his eye-color had returned to normal as well.

After a few hours had passed, most of the other heroes had gone to sleep, except for Mario, who was piloting of course. The only other person awake was Keira, who could be seen standing over the slumbering pair of Keybladers, cooing silently to herself, "Aw…I need a camera!"

Keira looked to the side to see Jak napping on the bench. Quickly and quietly, she flicked his nose until he awoke with a disturbed look. Annoyed, Jak asked, "What?"

Keira simply pointed to Sora and Kairi, displaying a dreamy look as she did so. Jak, however, just saw two kids trying to catch some sleep. After he gave Keira an "I'm lost" look, the aqua-haired heroine added in a whisper, "Aren't they cute?"

Jak gave the sleeping teens one more glance. He guessed they looked somewhat peaceful. And extremely filthy. What have they been doing in the mountains all this time? Smiling at Keira, Jak concurred, "Yeah, they're alright."

Suddenly, an orange ottsel dropped down from seemingly nowhere in front of Sora and Kairi. Like lightning, he grabbed the sleeping girl's hand and ripped it away from Sora's waist. Already knowing he was receiving peeved looks from both Jak and Keira, Daxter explained, "Look, I'm just tryin' to prevent liabilities before they happen. I don't wanna hear from them in nine months sayin' 'Oops!'"

* * *

_Oh, that Daxter!_

_1) Remember in Chapter 10: The Departed, Sora's mom told him that? I bet you thought I was just B.S.'ing as usual, but no, I planned that bombshell all along. Ain't I a stinker?_


	72. Cabin Fever

**Chapter 72: Cabin Fever**

Maybe the heroes and Precursors of Twilight should have come up with a way of communicating to each other while they were separated. Sure, the blue beings could just pop up and teleport anywhere they wanted at anytime, but our heroes certainly could not. This was normally a disadvantage when the recruited legends were waiting around for the precursors' arrival or trying to find their way back home. However, they thought ahead and came prepared this time, hence the use of the (in)glorious _Iron Toadstool_.

Inside the ship, Crash was sitting awake on one of the cabin's benches, resting his eyes and newly healed muscles. The others (including the revitalized Crunch Bandicoot), however, were all discussing what had been happening in the past week.

Murray inquired, "So what actually happened with that Twisted Wipeout race?"

Daxter energetically responded, "Oh, man! We went through these three rounds of arbitrary futuristic racing, got to stay in five-star hotel after five-star hotel, until we landed in London—from a first class flight, I might add—to stay in this SUPER luxurious, Playboy-quality five-star hotel, and then we raced in the awesome Grand Prix, and then—"

"We kicked Calypso's ass," Jak proudly inserted.

"Yeah, that too!"

Riku stated, "Yeah, well, while you guys have been enjoying your stays at hotels, we've been hiking up and down mountains looking for some dumb laboratory!"

Keira leaned in and got a whiff of Riku. Fanning her nose, she put in, "Yeah, you guys smell!"

"Hey!" Donald exclaimed, obviously offended. "It's not like we got to take bubble baths every night!"

"Speakin' of baths," Sora started, fanning his nose as well, "I think we can all agree that Link is the stinkiest guy in this ship!"

Link had been silently sitting with his arms crossed throughout the entire conversation until Sora mentioned his name. Looking up, he asked, "I beg your pardon?"

Crunch agreed in a sharp exclamation, "Whoa! This foo' smells like anger, fatigue, and flop sweat!"

Link irritably stated, "That's funny. Calypso told me the same thing!"

Very suddenly, silence dominated the _Iron Toadstool's_ cabin.

Daxter sneakily asked, "So…what exactly happened between you and Calypso…?"

All eyes were on Link, who was giving the pants-wearing ottsel a death-glare. The Hylian peevishly asked, "What do you mean by _happened?"_

Stifling a laugh, Ratchet countered, "Ya know…did she 'pluck your flower'?"

Right next to Ratchet, Coco jumped in, "Did she 'knock your boots' off?"

"Did you guys 'pound the hound'?" Murray inserted.

"How about 'shake the shack'?" Donald Duck surprisingly added with a quacky laugh.

"'Mow the lawn'?" Keira asked.

"'Bake the cookies'?" Riku added.

"'Jab your jaw'?" Sly asked.

Daxter exclaimed, "'Humpty your dumpty'!"

Finishing the procession of sexual euphemisms, Clank humorously added, "Did she 'recalibrate your peripheral motion sensors'?"

Sitting next to Clank, Crash opened his eyes and snickered lowly to the robot, "Ew, that was dirty!"

Link, however, wasn't finding any of their comedic jabs the least bit funny. Sternly, he insulted, "None of you are clever."

Daxter jumped up to the green warrior's shoulder with a devious grin. He lowly asked, "C'mon, you can tell me. That Calypso was one hot piece o' tail, I'll tell you that."

Suddenly, Mario called from the crow's nest, "There's a storm comin'—you know, the type with rain. And since we're missing a wing, it's gonna be hard to navigate, so I'm landin' the _Iron Toadstool_ fah repairs." Mario grabbed a microphone from the panel and spoke into it, "Breaker, breaker, this is the _Iron Toadstool_ comin' down in need of repairs. Also, a few of my friends in here are gonna need a quick place to rest."

A grainy, Russian inflected voice returned through Mario's receiver, "Hm…alright, Mario. You have your payment, correct?"

Nervously, Mario turned his head and darted his eyes back to make sure none of the others were listening to his conversation. Then, in a very strained tone, he answered, "Yeah, yeah…I got it."

The clunky vessel sailed through the air steadily, rocking in a lopsided fashion due to having its right wing blown off. Mario pushed the steering wheel upward gently, letting the _Iron Toadstool_ take a steady dive into a spectral accumulation of stratus clouds until it emerged through the underside to reach a small city on the outskirts of the mountain range. It landed like an oversized helicopter in the middle of a large, clear field. Judging by the strategic placements of wooden benches, rock pathways, and cement water fountains, they must have landed in a park.

Opening the ship's bottom hatch, Jak jumped down onto the grassy landscape, stretching his aching muscles. His actions were soon mimicked by the rest of the heroes except for Mario, who stayed on the ship to wheel it around to the nearest auto-repair shop.

Before leaving, Mario had told the heroes to make their way to the nearest tavern across the street. There, they would receive the hospitality Mario had requested over the radio.

The cloudy sky was darkening into the late evening, and the wind was definitely picking up. Quickly, our heroes reached the edge of the park and crossed the busy street. Feeling raindrops sprinkle over them, they hastened their pace and rushed inside the lemonade pub.

* * *

Laughing and taking a swig from his glass of blackberry lemonade, Sly Cooper merrily let everyone know, "And then—wait, that's not even the best part—and then, everyone woke up with hangovers the next morning!"

Donald added, "We went crazy on the sugar!"

Most of the legends, all of which included Crash, Coco, Crunch, Ratchet, Clank, Donald, Goofy, Sly, Bentley, and Murray, were currently having a relaxing time sitting around a rectangular, wooden table that was situated near the bar area. Sitting at the bar on individual stools, Jak and Keira were comfortably seated next to each other, both beaming at the lively conversation in front of them. Standing on the bar's table, much to the storeowner's annoyance, Daxter was loudly cackling to himself and downing shots of raspberry lemonade, obviously enjoying the mountain-exploring heroes' story very much.

Outside, the storm had finally arrived, and it was raining hard on the small city. Inside the bar, the rain's pitter-patter on the windows could barely be heard over the heroes' joyous festivities. To add to the noise level, Daxter enviously hollered, "WOO! That sounded like a party fit for the Daxtinator!"

"Right on, brother!" Murray cheered, extending his massive gloved hand to fist-bump the ottsel's diminutive orange one. Murray then asked, "So what have you guys been going through this whole time?"

Daxter vivaciously replied, "Combat racing! What else?"

Sitting at the table, Bentley raised his glass and added, "And we helped in the pit!"

Also sitting at the table, Ratchet asked, "Did we tell you that we got stalked by these weird clown guys? They kept driving around and shooting at us!"

Coco added, "Yeah, and then they bandicoot-nabbed me!"

Concerned, Crunch asked, "Whoa, were you okay?"

With a somewhat mystifyingly nonchalant attitude, Coco answered, "Oh, yeah. They did all the fun stuff, like tie me up and throw me in the back of an ice cream truck. Later, I blacked out, though, when something fell on my head."

Taken aback by her story, Sly stuttered, "U-um…that sounds terrible."

Coco replied, "Oh, no, it wasn't that bad, especially when I woke up and Ratchet told me that another racer was totally hitting on me while I was unconscious!"

Ratchet slapped a palm to the middle of his face in exasperation. Regretfully, he said, "I never should have even brought that up to you…"

Giggling, Coco relayed, "According to you, he was 'ogling' at me, right?"

"Just drop it!"

Suddenly, Crash looked up from his glass of mango lemonade with a curious look. "Wait, are you talking about Sonic?"

"Sonic?" Ratchet repeated. "No, I'm sure it was the guy named Rade. _I hate that guy…"_

Suddenly, Crash jumped in realization. Slightly covering his mouth with his hands, Crash corrected himself, "Yeah—er, Rade's his name."

Coco eyed her brother's suspicious behavior but let it pass. Changing the subject, she asked slyly, "So, big brother of mine, did you get her number?"

Caught off guard, Crash asked, "Who's number?"

"You know, the chick you nearly sold us out for. Twice. Minerva Mink?"

With a guilty, hangdog smile, Crash apologized, "Sorry for that again…and YES, I did get her number!"

"Really?" Coco asked, distrusting the bandicoot in every way.

"Nope," Crash dejectedly looked back down at his beverage with angst.

From the bar table, Daxter deciphered Crash's uncharacteristically miserable attitude. With faux-empathy, Daxter said, "Aw…I know that look! Someone hasn't had a girlfriend in…three—maybe four years!"

Crash furrowed his black eyebrows at the prying ottsel and stuck his tongue out at him. Meanwhile, much to the bandicoot's chagrin, everyone at the table, including Jak and Keira on the adjacent barstools, let out a long drawn out, _"Aw!"_ Crash's cheeks visibly reddened underneath his fur, indicating that the bandicoot was extremely mortified.

Trying and nearly failing to sound sympathetic, Coco quickly wiped off her smile and asked, "Ya thinkin' about Tawna, Crash-y?"

"Maybe…" Crash responded halfheartedly, locking his gaze on his lemonade drink.

"Who's Tawna?" Keira asked inquisitively.

"No one…" Crash answered emptily, lethargically stirring his mango lemonade with his straw.

In the manner of a gossiping little sibling, Coco turned to everyone else and whispered rather audibly, _"It's his ex-girlfriend. She broke up with him…"_

Another round of _"Aws"_ resounded from the other legends' mouths, but this time, Crash aggressively interrupted them all with, "She didn't break up with me! I broke up with _her…"_

Coco, who clearly hadn't heard this side of the story, stammered, "Wait…what?"

Taking a slow drink, Crash replied, "Yep. Four years ago when I was thirteen, about two years after I saved her from Cortex, I noticed she kept going out at night, sometimes without telling me."

Interested in Crash's story, Clank asked, "Was Tawna being unfaithful?"

Crash smiled innocently. "Hold your horses, Clank. So I followed her one night all the way to Cortex Island. She went all the way into the city, standing on some street corner."

Daxter commented, "Uh-oh, I think I know how this story's going to end…"

Disregarding Daxter's premonition, the heartbreak-bandicoot continued, "Anyway, so after half-an-hour, I figured it was a good time to show myself from behind the dumpster and ask her who she was waiting for. But before I could, a car pulled up next to her—"

Daxter interrupted, "I knew it! She's a—"

"—No, she's not a…whatever you were gonna say," Crash quickly cleared up. "She opened the passenger door, got in, and drove off with…him."

"With who, Crash-y?" Coco asked, actually feeling genuine concern for her brother now.

"You know…Pinstripe."

"Oh…" Coco exhaled.

Crash finished, "Anyway, the next day, I talked to her about it, and she denied it. She called me an accuser. I called her a liar. She called me a jerk. I called her a cheater. She said she hated me. Then I told her I wanted to break up. Bada-bing, bada-boom, we're separated. Big whoop. Ya wunda fight abouddit?"

After receiving somewhat sad and comforting looks from his allies, Crash wordlessly stood up from the table and excused himself to go outside the tavern. A few seconds later, he came back inside, drenched from the bad weather's rain with a sheepish smile, and stalked off into the tavern's back room.

Meanwhile, towards the front of the tavern in the arcade area, Sora and Riku were battling it out on a fighting game called Mortal Konflict. Kairi and Link were standing behind the two players, the former of whom looked needy and impatient.

Kairi asked in a pestering tone, "C'mon, guys, let me play the winner!"

"Wait your turn!" Sora commanded, fiercely mashing every button he could find on his side of the game machine.

Also mashing buttons, Riku replied to the redhead conversely, "On second thought, this game's too violent for you!"

Pouting, Kairi crossed her arms and sulked, "No fair!"

Link only stood next to her, watching the gory graphics on the screen with revulsion. "How can something like that possibly be fun?" (1)

On the left side of the game's screen, Sora's character was landing a series of punches on Riku's man until the silver-haired Keyblader's guy suddenly teleported behind him and delivered a devastating kick, which shattered Sora's character's skull. Then, the words _"Finish Him!"_ were displayed and yelled in a gruff commanding voice. Riku's character pulled out two swords and proceeded to slice and dice his opponent until he was a pile of bloody carvings on the floor.

"_Player 2 wins! FATALITY!"_

Riku threw his hands up in victory as Sora seized his hair in frustration. Riku turned to his defeated friend and asked, "Another round?"

Determined to crush his best friend, Sora agreed, "You bet!"

Just then, Mario walked in through the tavern's doors and announced, "Repairs are done. Come on outside when you're all ready, but don't take all day."

The heroes complied and decided that now was a good time as any to get going. While the others got up from their seats and made their way out the door, Coco broke away from them and strolled around to the back room to retrieve Crash. She stopped in front of the closed wooden door and heard something rather odd resonating from inside. Pressing her ear against it, she swore she heard the sound of someone singing. Nervously, she pushed open the door.

Inside the dark room, Crash could be seen lying, belly up, on some very familiar orange, wooden boxes with his face buried under his arms. In a melancholy yet somehow hopeful voice, Crash murmured sentimentally, _"And even when your hope is gone, move a-long, move a-long just to make it through—"_

With a look of horror, Coco moved her hand to let the door close again. She wasn't one hundred percent sure she saw it, but she could swear she saw him crying in there, which was an act she herself had never witnessed her brother do. Shaking that possibility from her mind, she quickly pretended she didn't just see what she thought she saw and casually knocked on the door, calling, "Hey, Crash, we're leaving!"

A quick sniffle was heard. Then, "Oh—alright, I'm…uh…I'm just takin' a wiz."

Indecisively, Coco pointed out, "I don't think that's a bathroom, bro."

"Oh…it isn't?" Crash tried to play off his evident fib with cheap humor, "I guess they need a clean-up in aisle four!"

Crash emerged from the back room's door, looking agitated and wide-eyed. His red Mohawk was extremely tussled and messy. From his moist eyes hung two dark bags, both of which suggested that the bandicoot had some repressed resentment held inside him.

Crash shrugged his shoulders and attached his hands to his hips, nonchalantly saying, "Whew, 'bout time we got goin'."

Hesitantly at first, Coco pried, "Um…are you okay—?"

"—Let's get goin'!" Crash urged forward, walking past the bandicootess for the tavern's front door.

* * *

Back on the up and running _Iron Toadstool_, there was still no sign of any godly precursors. Our heroes weren't complaining, though, as the ship's interior offered an adequate resting area for them. They did have a really, really long day, after all.

Jak was sitting with his arms crossed, trying to clear his head from the day's wild events. He woke up in a nice hotel, won a Grand Prix race, defeated a demon named Calypso, revisited some awful memories via Mavo's toxin, got his Morph Gun destroyed by—

Oh, man. His gun was broken. How had he just realized this?

That Morph Gun was his pride and joy. And Draksin had effortlessly snapped it in half with a simple squeeze of his hand. Jak suddenly began remembering the deadly look he had received from the Dark Lord when he was being lifted into the air by a tight choke-hold. And he had said something to him. What was it again? Oh, yeah it was something like…

"_So you're the one Sora admires so much. I think I'll show him, you, and everyone else here just how black your heart is by ripping it out…"_

Jak had always felt fear before, but he accepted that feeling as just being apart of adventuring. But in that split second that he had been single-handedly lifted into the air—and when he looked into Draksin's soulless, yellow eyes—he felt the Light Eco drain from his senses and slowly let visceral terror take over him. The last time he felt that much fear was when he went toe-to-toe with Metal Kor, but even then he had a fully loaded gun at his side.

Wait, what did Draksin mean by "you're the one Sora admires so much"?

Jak glanced across the cabin to see Sora sitting on the bench, sandwiched between Kairi and Goofy and blankly staring at the floor. The kid actually admired him? Him of all people? Jak saw no reason why such a naïve and optimistic little boy scout would look up to a dark and angry anti-hero like him. Hm, maybe "anti-hero" was the wrong word.

Jak's glance focused on the boy for a moment. In the blink of an eye, Sora's body flashed into a certain dark lord and then back to his original self. Jak shook his head sideways, erasing his head of any such thoughts. Maybe he had too much lemonade…

Meanwhile, Coco was up in the cockpit with a slightly annoyed Mario, even though she didn't appear to be doing anything irritating besides stand and watch the plumber drive with her arms crossed. She also seemed to be giving the back of Mario's head a distrusting look.

Mario must have felt the bandicootess watching over him to some degree because he asked, "Can I help you?"

"Yes, actually, you could." Coco changed her tone to a suspicious one. "I noticed that you're always handling the expenses. Like with the hotels, how on Earth were you able to rent out that many rooms in a five-star hotel on your salary?"

Mario kept his eyes on the skies through the windshield. Tightening his grip on the cyclic stick controls, Mario suddenly straightened his posture in an apprehensive way. He replied tentatively, "Plumbers get paid more than you think, little girl…"

"Right, I thought about that, but then I remembered that you told us something about wanting to wish for a bunch of money if we won the Twisted Wipeout race so you could pay for the dream wedding your fiancé wants. Remember that?"

"Uh…"

"If your salary is so high that you can pay for five-star hotel rooms for two nights in a row, then why do you need extra money for a wedding?

"Ya know…"

"And let's not forget about the bartender you were talking to earlier over the radio to supply us with free drinks!"

"…"

"How are you paying for our hospitality, Mister Mario?"

Suddenly, Mario flipped on the FM radio, and loud rock music filled the cockpit, drowning out Coco's pressing questions. Of course, Coco tried speaking louder, but Mario was quick to sing along to the tune, _"Welcome to the jungle—we got fun and games! We got everything you want—honey, we know the names!"_

* * *

On the ground, a slowly moving figure stopped to gaze up at the bulky flying machine known as the _Iron Toadstool_. The man grimaced and closed his eyes, sensing the many different life forms aboard the ship. Immediately recognizing those energies, he widened his pitch-black eyes and prepared to teleport. A split second later, he was gone from where he once stood.

Back in the Iron Toadstool, a bright flash of light quickly engulfed the interior and just as soon faded, catching everyone off guard. Once their senses returned, the heroes collectively gawked at the newcomer standing crookedly against a beige-colored wall of the ship.

The blonde precursor still held his angry grimace as he said, "I swear…if it's the last thing I do…a lot of bad people are going to die!"

The heroes spent only a second's worth of hesitation before shouting, "Jeycko!"

The blue man's apparent anger must have quickly subsided because he threw up a greeting wave of his hand and addressed the heroes, "Oh, hey. Long time no see, hero-dudes and dudettes."

"My word," Link began, taking in the precursor's utterly jacked-up appearance, "What happened to you?"

"Oh, not much. I got nearly blown up, tossed down the side of a mountain, and a few broken bones. Oh, and did I tell you I fell into a coma? I wake up to realize it's been a week!"

"Amazing," Bentley remarked. "You survived an attack from Draksin. We thought you were dead!"

"Yeah, I'm still kickin'. I haven't been able to teleport long distances, so this past day and a half has been a real pain in the neck. What've you guys been up to lately?

Daxter answered, "Well, blue-boy, we've won a race or two, put the smack on Calypso and Mavo, and we learned that Draksin is Sora's daddy!"

Contorting his face into confusion, Jeycko requested, "Come again?"

Much to Sora's misery, Daxter explained to Jeycko in vivid detail about how the Dark One had been controlling the Chosen One's mind and how he had kidnapped the boy and taken him to a cave to torture him. Next, the ottsel spoke of how Draksin broke the truth to Sora as the ship was preparing to soar away from the mountains. Lastly, he informed Jeycko of Sora's complete break down, which resulted in a comatose slumber.

Jeycko scratched his head in thought. "Whoa…"

"Crazy, I know," Daxter responded understandingly.

"Nah, not just that. It's just…man, how much child support do you think they'd make a guy like Draksin pay?"

* * *

_1) Mortal Kombat + Kratos + my hands wrapped around a PS3 controller = an orgy of awesomeness. Yeah, I said it._

_I referred to two songs in this chapter. Just a harmless FYI: Crash sang Move Along by The All American Rejects and Mario sang Welcome to the Jungle by Guns 'N Roses._

_And later…um, well cool stuff happens! Read it!_


	73. Dead and Gone

_Heads up: a short preview for **Uka Uka Reborn** is up. Find it here in the Crash Bandicoot category, or through my profile. Read it at your own risk._

**Chapter 73: Dead and Gone**

London, England: 10:43 p.m.…

Inspector Carmelita Montoya Fox was always one to lose sleep over cases that related to a certain devious raccoon. This current instance was almost no different—except she was intending to rescue him, not throw him behind bars.

The inspector tiredly leaned against the wall of Calypso's garden room. She wearily glanced down into her empty coffee mug, mentally noting to herself to bring a bigger cup next time. It was nightfall outside; she could easily tell from the huge hole in the glass windowpane. She strolled across the room, stepping over a broken cable cord, walking between some empty shotgun shells, and being careful to avoid the black body bag that contained Arden Calypso's deceased corpse until she reached the window. Staring up through the hole, her eyes fell upon the distant half-moon. She sighed and contemplated to herself, _Will I ever find you, Cooper?_

Her thoughts were interrupted by Captain Favre, an anthropomorphic hog officer with a wiry, gray mustache and yellow trench coat. Suddenly remembering that she wasn't the only one in the garden room, as there were numerous officers examining the crime scene of Calypso's murder, Carmelita heard the captain inform her in a British accent, "Well, Fox, it's official. The Twisted Wipeout competition is cancelled for good. Can't say that I'll miss it…All that death and greed over one free wish seems like something the world just isn't ready for."

"Agreed." Carmelita broke her gaze from the moon and turned to ask him, "Were the eyewitnesses able to give us any leads on Detective Cooper's whereabouts?"

"No, sorry."

A Doberman forensic officer rushed over to the conversing pair and quickly notified them, "Inspector, Captain, we've found some blood over by an urn on the floor. It seems like a person was injured there, and there's a scattered trail that leads over to the power switch for the cable that killed Calypso. We can take a few samples back to the lab."

"Please do, officer," Carmelita consented.

After a few silent moments, Captain Favre brought up, "You know, Inspector, on the racing roster for today's Grand Prix, there was a turtle named Bentley working in the winning racer's pit crew." Carmelita turned around sharply at the sound of the tortoise's name. Favre continued, "We could find out about this guy and see what he knows."

"Yes, that would be most precedential, Captain!" Carmelita replied jauntily. "Bentley…he, er…he was one of the three assailants who kidnapped Sly." Carmelita had to remind herself to choose her words carefully, lest she would give away that "Detective Cooper" actually used to be an infamous thief. (Whoa! See what I did there with the whole Sly Cooper and Infamous thing? I'm a genius!)

"You're sure?" Favre asked.

Before Carmelita could give her positive response, another officer from across the garden room suddenly shrieked in surprise, "What the—? Where's Calypso's body?"

Carmelita and Favre quickly rushed onto the scene next to the indoor pond where Calypso's body once lay. They looked to the nearby officer, who was the one to scream about the body's disappearance in the first place. He quickly began explaining, "I-I swear she was right here a minute ago!"

* * *

Draksin appeared on a beach somewhere in Sicily from a black cloud of mist. The sky was dark and windy as he stood there on the white sand, holding the black body bag bridal-style in his arms. Crooked palm trees lightly shook from the moderate breeze, looking like tall creepers watching over the dark lord.

"This is where you were created…to serve mankind."

He stood looking out at the dark sea with a genuinely downcast expression. Slowly, he knelt down and set the dead sorceress on the sandy ground. He brought his hand up to the bag's zipper that was being used to conceal her body and slowly unzipped it until her face was visible. Draksin sadly looked upon Arden's dead, vacant expression, bringing up two fingers to caress her cheek.

"So beautiful. The last thing I said to you was a threat…" Draksin's sad look turned to anger. "Those police pigs didn't even shut your eyes."

With two fingers, he closed Calypso's eyes for her, letting her death be a peaceful one. He zipped the body bag completely closed again, and picked her deceased body up once more. He made his way into the warm water, walking into a knee-high depth and stopping to put Calypso down. With a snap of his fingers, a small purple flame erupted above his middle and forefingers. It was a special flame that unrelentingly devoured anything that was unfortunate enough to come within its grasp. He lowered the dark flame to the bag and lit on fire from the bottom. Virally, the fire spread to the rest of the body bag. Draksin lightly nudged the bag away from him with his foot and let it drift away, further into the ocean's glistening distance.

Draksin turned his back on the funeral and began slowly making his way back to the shore. Standing on the sand again, he faced the burning bag drifting away once more. Using his dark magic, he dried off his clothes and muttered to himself, "Even a dark lord needs time to mourn…"

Draksin reached inside his black tunic to pull out his aviator sunglasses. As he slid them over his yellow eyes, a wide grin stretched across his face.

"Sadly, this isn't one of those times."

His brotherhood of dark users was dwindling in numbers, and he couldn't be more elated. That moron Reiden had been taken care of in a matter of four days since their arrival on Earth. A potential problem with Lusef had already been rectified by the one called Crash before it started. And now his disobedient plaything of a subordinate had been executed by the heroes.

And he didn't even have to get his hands dirty.

He guessed the only downside about Arden's passing was that he would have no one else to toy with. At least for a while, that is.

Those three underlings were holding him back. Sooner or later, he figured he would have to kill them off one day when Isaac Bifford finally achieved his true strength. With Isaac at full power, he would have no need for Arden, Reiden, or Lusef whatsoever.

And just like that, a rather fond memory entered Draksin's mind…

_Enter Flashback_

_Reiden, Lusef, and Arden were cooped inside a tight-spaced cottage of sorts. This log cabin contained a wooden stool and two bunk beds with white sheets. That was it. Even with that limited amount of furniture, there was still hardly any room to move around._

_Lusef was sitting with his arms crossed on the stool, an impatient look about his somewhat quiet face. Reiden was lying on the bottom bunk with his arms folded under his head, also looking ticked off for some reason. Meanwhile, on the top bunk, Arden was leisurely lying down with her legs lazily draped over the sides of the cot. She was wearing her normal ninja attire with the mask off. Lusef had removed his lab coat and was just sitting with his conversely colored dress shirt and slacks. Reiden was wearing his casual black pants and red cloak with Chinese symbols._

_Rude and crude as always, Reiden blurted, "Screw this, I'm tired of waitin'."_

_Evidently annoyed, Mavo replied, "You've said that already. Two minutes ago. And three minutes before that!"_

_Reiden snorted, "I guess that means you got some mad time-keeping skills, doc."_

"_Whatever," the doctor mumbled. He looked out the dark window nearby, still seeing so sign of Draksin. _

_Reiden yawned and then proposed, "Maybe D-Man got lost in the forest out there, and then a bear mauled him…making him less bossy."_

"_Maybe a bear should maul you…" Mavo audibly muttered._

"_What was that?" Reiden asked sharply from the bottom bunk, losing his temper. "I couldn't hear you over your bizarre hairdo."_

"_Why don't take your worthless carcass back to China, raise your I.Q. to seventy-five, and then say that to my face!"_

_Without getting too involved and not looking over the banister of her top bunk, Calypso tiredly interjected, "Boys, not now please."_

_Reiden's and Mavo's emotions seemed to subside, until the evil emperor bluntly asked the doctor stink-eyeing him, "Why are you even here? I've never even seen you fight." _

_Lusef smirked, and his eyes darkened behind his goggles. "In case you didn't know, I'm an asset to our liege. If my staggering intellect isn't enough to blot out your services to this team, then my prowess for understanding how fears work will."_

"_Blah, blah—all I heard was that you're an 'ass to our liege'," Reiden boorishly replied._

_Mavo grinned evilly and crossed his arms. "Reiden Long…you run away from spiders bigger than your thumb. You're also terribly afraid of losing loved ones, seeing as how you've already let a two-day-old son die in your arms."_

_Reiden sat up quickly from the bed, teeth gritted and cheeks turning scarlet with rage. Lowly, he uttered, "Shut up…"_

"_And let's not forget about that girlfriend of yours before she was killed. What was her name again—Okiku, Orijime…?"_

_Reiden stood up and raised a white-knuckled fist in front of Mavo's chin. His eyes were full of rage as his mouth sputtered, "Her name was Otsuru!"_

_From the top bunk, Arden rolled her eyes. It appeared that she would have to get involved yet again. She sat up and proceeded to jump down to the floor, right in the spot between the scientist and angry warlord. She put both of her hands on the men's shoulders and calmly quelled the dispute, "C'mon, boys, can't you two settle things like a pair of gents anymore?" Arden's green eyes began to glow like two glass orbs as she gazed at the Chinese warlord, "Stop fighting…for me?"_

"_Screw that!" Reiden yelled in response, obviously immune to Calypso's man-controlling power. _

_As the men continued to quarrel, Calypso peevishly rolled her eyes and pouted between them. Meanwhile, outside of the cabin, Draksin and the wolf-man Isaac were floating above the shack's roof under the star-spangled night sky, listening to every violent word of the argument. The Dark One grunted, "Hmph. Do you hear those clowns? They're worse than children in timeout."_

_Isaac only gave the dark lord a nervous look. His faced reflected feelings of uncertainty and skepticism, as if he had just joined a secret club. Disregarding Draksin's statement about his other servants' childish mentality, Isaac asked, "Um…where exactly are we, master?"_

_Draksin mentally beamed at the label his new disciple just gave him. He answered, "We're in Russia's Sayan Mountains, just twelve miles away from Dr. Mavo's lab." (1)_

"_Is Dr. Mavo one of the guys fighting right now?" Isaac asked lightly._

"_Yes, he and that Reiden idiot will be the death of me. So will that woman, Calypso. She's a bit manipulative, but you'll soon become immune to her antics." Draksin glanced up at the half-moon, smiling darkly and then turning to face Isaac's wolfish features. "I have a good feeling about you, Biff. You've shown me that you're loyal, efficient, and much more powerful than the others."_

_Isaac nodded modestly and said, "Thank you, my master."_

_Draksin crossed his arms with a satisfied grin. "Together, we shall rip this planet into a new underworld. Now, come—let's go meet your new allies."_

_End Flashback_

* * *

_1) Remember that old shack our heroes found in the mountains so many chapters ago? That's the same cabin Reiden, Arden, and Lusef resided in the flashback._

**-X-**

**HybridXKenshen here…**

**Demonic Entry #4**

**Is hatred worth dying for?  
Anyone who feels it's so is a total idiot.**

**More than one life to live…  
****Several souls to feed on…**

**Kenshen out.**

**-X-**

_Thanks, buddy. Maybe these little "entries" will have meaning one day. Anyway, here's a quick briefing on my schedule…_

_There's two more chapters before this arc completely closes. Next chapter, our heroes will finally find their way back home! While they're resting, strange happenings will occur…meh, just read it. __**Strange Noises!**__…is what it's called._

_After that, I should have __**Uka Uka Reborn**__ posted. Starting with chapter one, then chapter two, then chapter three, four, and five updated daily. While that moovy's up, I'm gonna take a brief hiatus to work more on Deathmatches. Gawd, they're addicting to write!_

_Then, when I get back from my hiatus, I'll start the final arc of Isaac Bifford on this story. Yeah, I said final. Draksin's arc will be a separate fic, seeing as how it's unavoidably dark in too many ways._

_See ya next chappie! Y'all come on back, now, ya hear?_


	74. Strange Noises

_**F97-Master of Saikyo:** I noticed you blatantly ignored my request/threat to NOT SPOIL the surprise in Chapter 70 in your review. After realizing that I did NOT have the power to remove any reviews, I became extremely annoyed. So, to let off steam and not fill your email with spam, I decided to proverbially **go off on you**. You, sir, are worse than those people who spoiled what happened to Dumbledore in the sixth Harry Potter book. You, sir, are much worse than the people who spoiled who Luke Skywalker's father was back in 1980. You, sir, are much, **much** worse than the aggravating people who sit in movie theaters with you and whisper in your ear what's going to happen next. And finally, you, sir, are much, much, **MUCH** worse than my friends who tell a girl I'm about to ask her out on a date before I actually have a chance to do so._

_There. It's done. Now sit there and think about what you did. All is forgiven._

_Thanks for the review, though, dude!_

**Chapter 74: Strange Noises**

"Alright, now channel every last ounce of your Light Eco, Jak," Jeycko instructed. "Good, that's really helping."

It was nighttime, and the heroes and injured precursor were idly standing around an airy mountaintop. Crickets and night owls could be heard emitting their calls all around the immediate area. Mario had landed the _Iron Toadstool_ for the purpose of Jeycko attempting an intricate technique that comprised of borrowing Light Eco from Jak. Jeycko would then convert that Eco into energy and use it to teleport the heroes back to Wumpa Island.

Jak was currently in his glowing Light Eco state, vibrantly illuminating the darkened landscape a bluish color. The others watched in amazement as Jeycko, who had his hand tightly grasped on the Light Warrior's shoulder, received the pure Eco and brilliantly glowed as well. Finally, Jak's power expended, and he reverted back to his mortal form in a burst of light.

Jeycko, having obtained a plethoric amount of energy, smiled in relief and said, "Whew, that's much better. Whenever, you guys are ready, we can go!"

"Now or never," Crash casually responded, gathering around the precursor with his allies.

"Here we go."

In the familiarly blinding burst of light, the heroes disappeared from Russia's Sayan Mountains.

* * *

The legends reappeared back in the dark island of Wumpa, the bandicoot's home, sweet home.

The first person to speak was Mario. "Hey, where the heck's my ship?"

Coco pointed past him and said, "Behind you."

The plumber turned around to find his prized possession turned over on its side near the island's shore. Then, like clockwork, the Iron Toadstool ceremoniously tipped over until it landed upside down on the sandy beach. Holding back curses, Mario sputtered, "Of all the lousy…mother…stupid…flippin'…!"

"Where did Jeycko go?" Sora asked, cutting off the fuming plumber.

Daxter hypothesized, "He probably went back up to Precursor-Heaven to regroup, which sounds like a good idea to me."

The heroes migrated inside the spacious Bandicoot home, taking refuse in the living room for a breather. Sly Cooper reflected out loud as he flopped down on the loveseat, "And I thought this was all gonna be easy. But no, I'm hiking through mountains, fighting skeleton soldiers, and reliving my past. Talk about gritty work."

Keira also ruminated, "Yeah, that Twisted Wipeout competition might not have been so bearable if I couldn't bathe every night, which brings up the question of who's hittin' the shower first because the eight of you still smell like a football team after gameday."

Every index finger, including Link's own, pointed to the Hylian warrior. Daxter shouted from across the room with an obnoxious tone, "You first, stinky!"

"Thank you, Daxter," Link replied sardonically. He stood up and crossed his arms with a quizzical look. "Where's the restroom?"

Crash pointed toward the hall and energetically answered, "Thad-a-way, smelly!"

"Thanks." Link then turned to Kairi, who was seated on the adjacent couch with Sora and Goofy, and asked the princess, "Will you show me how to work the shower, Kairi?"

The girl's right eye twitched before she choppily responded, "Huh—? Oh, um—"

"Yeah, I'll show how to work it, step by step," Sora cut off, willfully volunteering himself and leading the way to the bathroom.

Link rolled his eyes and followed the other boy into the bathroom. Meanwhile, Daxter commented, "That's weird. I could swear Sora was straight." (1)

Flipping the light on in the Bandicoot's bathroom, Sora pointed to the hot and cold taps in the shower. "Step one: turn on the water. Most people prefer water hot."

Link mumbled, "I'm not a Neanderthal…"

"Step two: pull the thingy. It makes the water come from the nozzle." Sora then pointed to Link and said, "Step three: get naked and wash your offensive body. Any questions?"

Link raised his hand. Sora irritably nodded and the green hero asked cheekily, "Were you coming on to me just now?"

"See ya," Sora dismissed himself, ignoring the frivolous question. He left the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

* * *

After proper wash-ups, our fatigued heroes retired to their shared rooms, all except Crash that is. He had stayed downstairs on the couch, staring at his father's sword as he quietly reflected on the day's events. The one episode that seemed to keep replaying itself in the bandicoot's head was when Dr. Mavo had begged for his life before being barraged with boulders. Of all the things he could be thinking about right now—clowns surrounding him, seeing his dream-girl in another weird vision, discovering Sora's father, and _nearly_ falling to tears about Tawna—Crash didn't know why his thoughts kept dwelling on a man who had stared at him with utmost fear.

It was late into the night; Crash could see the crescent moon shining in the dark night through a window. Suddenly, Aku Aku floated next to the bandicoot and advised him, "You should probably rest, Crash. It's been a long day."

"You can say that again," Crash replied exhaustedly. "Night, Aku."

"Goodnight, my child."

Crash trekked out of the living room up the stairwell. Taking his time with each step, he yawned and stretched his arms, making sure not to wake anyone already asleep. However, that didn't appear to be the status quo as he heard two people talking from the first room in the hall. Crash shrugged this off and kept walking through the hall but stopped suddenly at the first door when he heard laughter. Curious (and a bit nosy), Crash pressed his furry ear against the closed door:

"Oh, Sora, you're so good at that…"

And:

"I didn't even need to practice!"

With a look that spelled W.T.H., the bandicoot dropped to the floor. Straight from a Looney Tunes exhibition, Crash's eyes exited from their sockets and proceeded to slither under the door. They scanned the interior of the guest room to find Sora sitting on the bed with Coco's pink Nintendo DS in his hands. Next to him was Kairi, who seemed to be closely watching the portable game system's screen over Sora's shoulder.

Sora said in a low and show-offy tone, "And now you can watch me capture a level thirty-five Kakuna with my level seventy-two Charizard!"

Kairi exhaled dreamily and replied, "Oh, use an Ultra Ball this time! For me?"

Sora smiled into the dual screens of the DS. "You got it!"

Crash stood up again, stuffing his eyes back in his head and deeming that room child-friendly. He kept walking down the hall, going past a door where he heard the following:

"C'mon, Jak, a little faster, please!"

And:

"You must think I'm a machine, or something."

This door had a peephole on the knob, so the bandicoot knelt down and curiously peaked through. He spotted Jak languidly pressing the channel-up button on a TV remote control. The blonde man was obliquely sitting on the edge of the bed while Keira was lying down in a relaxed position behind him, commanding indignantly, "Keep switching. And maybe you should be a machine like Erol. At least he didn't whine and moan."

"And maybe you should be more like Ashelin—at least she doesn't bark at me," Jak replied. (2)

Keira made a quick lurching movement to attempt to hit him with her fist. Jak only held up his hands defensively and suavely smiled back at her.

After declaring that their room was kid-appropriate, Crash stood back up again and smiled lightly, continuing his stroll down the hall…until he walked past yet another door with strange noises emitting from inside it. This time, he heard Coco's voice demand in a prying tone, "C'mon, Ratchet…all the cool people are doing it!"

Then, Ratchet's voice returned with a fearful tone, "Nah-uh! Not happening!"

Crash's ears twitched a little bit in curiosity, but he shrugged his shoulders and whispered to himself, "Nah, there's no way my innocent little Coco is manhandling anybody…"

Crash wondered into his room and closed the door behind him, all the while chuckling at the silly thought. However, his one and only assumption that night was not the case he assumed it to be. Inside the room that Ratchet and Coco were currently arguing in, the Lombax was backed against a wall with a frightened expression. Standing close in front of him was the bandicootess with a terribly hungry look on her face.

Coco edged closer to Ratchet, urging, "C'mon, I promise I won't punch you in the ribs this time!"

Ratchet quickly rejected, "No way—you're weird! You've been acting differently ever since you got controlled by Calypso! I think she jacked up your state of mind, or something!"

Coco waved off, "Nonsense!"

After she tried advancing on him again, Ratchet emitted an emasculating shriek and pushed her away, making for the door. Before turning the knob and literally high-tailing it out of there, Ratchet turned to her and said sharply, "No means NO, Coco!"

After Ratchet fled, Coco was left standing there with her arms crossed, muttering to herself, "He'll come crawling back…"

* * *

_1) In Kingdom Hearts 1, I was so convinced that Sora was straight. The next game, Chain of Memories, swayed me even further in the belief that Sora was strictly for the ladies. And in Kingdom Hearts 2, he seemed straight enough for most of the game until that one brow-raising scene that I won't discuss here. And then that scene with him and Riku sitting on the beach had me scratching my head._

_2) Can anyone tell me why in Jak 3, Jak and Keira seemed romantically aloof from each other? They hardly said two words to each other! C'mon, in Jak 1, they flirted with each other (Keira did most of it), and in Jak 2, they even had a little spat. But in Jak 3, it's like they were total strangers! There was more of a romantic connection between Jak and Ashelin. What's up with that?_


	75. Where Are They Now?

**Chapter 75: Where Are They Now?**

"Minerva, over here!"

"Wait, Miss Mink!"

"Minerva, how does it feel to lose in fifth place of the first and last Twisted Wipeout Grand Prix?"

"Have you thought about continuing with your reality show?"

"Were you the one who murdered Arden Calypso?"

Min Mink casually walked by on the streets of Liberty City with her sunglasses shielding her easygoing eyes. She had just exited a building and was steadily making her way down a long flight of cement stairs. However, she wasn't walking undisturbed; news-reporters and journalists flanked her on either side, hastily following after the mink with their microphones, cameramen, and chief audio devices. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, the biker-vixen arrived near a limousine parked by the sidewalk and unhurriedly stepped inside, closing the door behind her. She rolled down the window and finally answered one of the eager reporter's questions, "My reality show's on hold until Charlie Sheen gets addicted to drugs again—so not long!"

In Liberty City's bough of Algonquin, Gerardo Lopez stood on the rooftop of his new apartment, overlooking the city's skyline with a nostalgic expression. Leaning on the edge of the rooftop, he whispered to himself, "One of these days, you'll be back to watch this with me."

In the state penitentiary, Gerardo's brother Antonio was outside in the courtyard, sitting on a bench with a few other orange-jumpsuit-clad inmates. Looking up at the bright morning sky, Antonio smiled and said to no one, "Six more years, bro. Four if I'm on good behavior."

A skinny anthro lizard sitting next to the man commented, "I still sssay you don't know bad from worssse."

Rolling his eyes, Antonio gave a small chuckle before replying, "Shut up, Joe."

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Sonic and Tails were taking a nice run through Hollywood. They sped to the giant Hollywood letters and ran up the side of the huge white "H", stopping to sit down at the top for a break.

Showing no sign of fatigue, Sonic smiled at the view of the city stretching out ahead of him and Tails. The orange fox turned to the blue hedgehog and remarked, "Hey, I noticed you didn't seem to have a nightmare last night."

Grinning, Sonic replied, "Actually, I did. Except, I saw a friend of mine in the dream before things got too scary. He kept calling me Rahdel, or something..."

"What's a Rahdel?"

Sonic stood up, still gazing out at the city's skyline. "I think I'll go see him again..."

Confusion evident on Tails' face, the orange fox sputtered to ask, "Wait, Sonic—who are you talking about?"

"Just a friend I met in the competition," Sonic answered plainly. "Tails, let Amy and the others know that I'm gunna take a visit to Wumpa Island. It's where my friend lives."

Still a bit dumbfounded, Tails asked, "Do you want me to go with you, Sonic?"

"Nah, Tails, I'm good by myself. And who knows, this might even help my sleeping problem." Sonic then hopped down from the white "H" and took off across the land like a blue bullet.

Little Miles Prower just sat there with a halfhearted expression, palm resting under his furry white cheek. He muttered to himself with an idolizing grin, "And there he goes again."

Meanwhile, in a cleared out street of Tokyo, Japan, Shingo Miyami was rallying up a street race with his posse. Leaning on the side of his brand new, sort-of-stolen hovership, the _Auricom_, Shingo and his crew gave the other racer mean-mugs.

Shingo trash-talked, "You ready to get smoked, loser?"

Sitting in the cockpit of his _Mach 5000_, Speed Racer tightened his gloves and gripped his steering wheel. He smirked and replied, "Only if you are, slowpoke!"

Shingo grinned. "Hmph."

Both racers got ready at the starting line. Both airships hovered above the street with low hums. Speed and Shingo smirked at each other competitively from their ships, awaiting the flag girl's signal to start the race.

"Ready...set...go!" the girl cried, standing between the two hovercrafts as they burst forward from the starting line.

Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, a muscular man in blue stood atop the giant Clock Tower. Lowering a red helmet over his head, he turned around to reveal himself as none other than Captain Falcon himself. He looked down on the city below, which was prepping to demolish the Ninth Heaven race track and restore the destroyed regions of the city. Falcon smiled.

"This place could use a hero," he said to himself. "But it seems like they already have plenty to go around."

Crossing his arms, Captain Falcon grinned as his _Blue Falcon_ pulled up right next to him and hovered in place. The nest's window opened up, inviting the bounty hunter inside. Jumping off the tower and into his prized airship, Captain Falcon took off into the bright blue morning sky, ultimately disappearing in a colorful vortex.

On the ground in a suburban area, David Hughes stood gazing at the colorful vortex with a slight look of awe. He watched as the vortex swirled around and around until it finally faded from existence. Suddenly, something tugged on the sleeve of his black leather jacket. Looking down, he saw his daughter Bethany urging him to hurry for some reason.

"Come on, Dad!" Beth commanded, holding the case that held her violin in one hand. "My recital's in five minutes. We'll be late!"

"Right," David responded, watching her bound into the family's new car. (The last one was destroyed in the construction of the Ninth Heaven racetrack.) Hopping into the driver's seat, David looked to his left and smiled at Sarah, his wife.

She smiled back. "Hurry, or we'll be late."

* * *

_There ya have it folks. End of the third arc. The very first chapter of Uka Uka Reborn will be up shortly. Keep in mind that that story time-warps ahead after the heroes (beside Crash, Coco, Crunch, and Aku Aku) go to Chicago, Illinois._

_I'll be back with more chapters for this story sometime before May ends. Most definitely earlier than that._


	76. Crash Bandicoot Must Die

**Chapter 76: Crash Bandicoot Must Die**

Isaac's eyes slowly opened. The cloudy sky was as dark as the ocean's calm surface. Yawning, he estimated the time to be around three or four o' clock in the morning. He stood up on the small deck of his steadily sailing raft, stretching his arms and legs vigorously. After finishing his quick get-me-up, Isaac squinted his bright brown eyes at the dark approaching shoreline of Florida.

Two border patrols watched as the wolfman's skiff slowly docked itself on the wet sand of the dark beach. The two men glanced at each other and laughed lightly. They strolled over to the beached raft, where Isaac was in the middle of stepping out of the boat and onto the American land. One of the patrols gruffly greeted him, "Howdy, partner. You look a bit lost."

Isaac turned around to face the two men on being addressed as "partner." Isaac rolled his eyes as soon as he spotted them. More sea patrols, he thought. He already had to deal with their type in the middle of the ocean a few times. Those scuffles never ended well for the patrols, not to mention those stray pirates who were looking to rob what little he had on the raft. These patrol men were very short compared to Isaac; he stood about two and a half heads over them.

"Whoa!" one of the border patrols exclaimed in astonishment upon seeing Isaac's wolf-like features. "This guy looks like he's got rabies!"

The other patrol drew his gun and aimed it at Isaac's hairy face. "Maybe we should put him down right here and now!"

Isaac grunted at their ignorance. Like lightning, he grabbed the man's hand and twisted it violently, causing a pained outcry and relinquishing the officer's grip on the small handgun. As the firearm plunked onto the sand below, Isaac made a quick jerking movement, which resulted in the officer's entire body being propelled out into the ocean's sparkling distance.

Meanwhile, the other patrol stared at his partner's plummeting (and sinking) body in horror. He turned back to Isaac with an infuriated expression and yelled, "For corn's sake—he was holding a wooden gun, ya freak! You're going down!"

Before the angered man was able to reach for his taser, Isaac had indifferently thrown the palm of his hand into the middle of the short man's nose, causing a crunching noise before he fell to the ground, unconscious.

Now that the two annoyances were taken care of (or better yet dead), Isaac set his mind on awaiting his master's arrival. Any minute now, and Draksin should show up here...

However, before any dark lords could show up, _she_ appeared. From the hill above the beach's shoreline, an anthropoid black-haired woman in her teens stood beaming down at Isaac Bifford. Over her ghostly pale skin, she wore a red tank top, black shorts, and purplish tennis shoes along with some black fingerless gloves. Yes, she was the same girl that Crash had seen when he was under the influence of Mavo's fear-toxin, the same girl that the bandicoot had telepathically spoken to while he and his friends were being chased by killer clowns.

She called down to Isaac, "I see you're still as friendly as ever with law enforcement."

Her long raven hair flowed in the sea breeze as she skipped down to the perplexed wolfman. Meeting in a warm embrace, Isaac could hardly process the girl's presence. He stumbled, "Na-Naomi? What are you doing here?"

Up close, the girl's green eyes displayed what looked like slight sadness. She answered, "I needed to talk to you."

All in one moment, Isaac wanted to tell this girl everything that he felt for her. About his love, his yearning, his jealously—even his disdain. But all he could say was, "You shouldn't be here..."

As Isaac tried averting his gaze from Naomi's light green eyes, the girl explained, "But I wanted to see you before I left."

Isaac looked back into her eyes with confusion. "You're leaving? Where are you going?"

Nodding her head slightly, Naomi looked down with a sheepish smile. "That's what I sort of needed to talk to you about."

Isaac suddenly cut in, sounding ruder than he had intended to, "Well, can it wait? Draksin will be here any second now—and he's still not happy about that bruise you put on his face."

"Which is why I'm going to be quick about this..." Naomi said lowly. She looked up into Isaac's clueless brown eyes and stated, "I'm going to go find Jayzev. You know, the one that everyone likes to call 'Crash'."

Isaac's expression changed to that of rising fury. "What?"

Hoping to calm him down, Naomi drew her body closer to his. She apologized, "I'm sorry...but I love him. And he needs me—"

"Why, Naomi? Why waste your time with him? Sooner or later, Draksin will kill him for taking out Reiden, Mavo, and Calypso."

Naomi stated, "When we were younger, I never abandoned him, not even when he was getting picked on by other kids. And I told you, I love him..."

Sorrow creeping on him, Isaac asked, "Well, what about us? Don't you know that I love..." Isaac couldn't finish that statement. His voice had gone too hoarse.

Naomi held the disheartened wolfman around the waist tighter. "I'm sorry, Isaac. And as long as you work for that demon, I can't really see us being together."

Naomi slipped away from Isaac. The saddened apprentice watched as she walked past him and boarded the same raft that he had just sailed in on. With a weak wave, Naomi pushed the skiff into the water and began her journey to Crash Bandicoot. The further Naomi sailed away in the ocean's distance, the greater a fire burned inside Isaac. He felt his anger growing erratically, and he wanted to completely lose control over it. He had never felt so much hate for one person...

He clenched his fists and roared into the air, simultaneously taking on his powerful second form. The dark beach was illuminated by Isaac's golden glow, the bright light's color matching the wolfman's golden fur. Isaac continued roaring in an animalistic manner into the dark heavens, feeling his own rage consume him.

Finally, Isaac halted his furious tantrum and said lowly to himself, "I...will kill Crash Bandicoot!"

Suddenly, a voice above him announced, "I have to say—I like this side of you the most."

Isaac looked up, immediately feeling embarrassed and cornered at the same time. "M-Master? How long have you been here?"

Draksin slowly descended to the white sand next to Isaac, smirking evilly at the wolfman. "At first, I was a little disappointed by the fact that you were trying to hide Naomi from me, but then I became impressed with the amount of anger you just put on display. Most impressive, indeed."

His shame subsiding, Isaac asked, "Master, may I be the one to put an end to Crash Bandicoot?"

Draksin grinned at his apprentice. He was becoming more and more proud of his apprentice by the second. "How much do you hate him?"

"I want to kill him ten thousand times!"

Draksin nodded. "As you wish, Biff."

It was then that Isaac had actually looked into his master's eyes. They weren't in their acidic yellow color for some reason; they were bright orange. A little puzzled by this, Isaac asked, "Um, Master? Why are your eyes orange?"

Draksin craned his neck to the side as he explained, "Oh, that just means I haven't fed on the living in a while. Yes, it's been a few months since I last drank from someone's veins. By tomorrow, my eyes will probably be red."

Isaac indifferently grunted, "Oh."

"Anyway, Biff, I've noticed that Crash and his idiotic friends seem to go wherever those meddling precursors point them. Go to Chicago, Illinois, and raise havoc until the heroes show up. Then, you can put an end to the bandicoot and his friends."

"Yes, my master," Isaac replied emptily. Secretly, he only wanted to murder Crash, not the others. He had no business with them, but if they did get in his way, then it was their death-wish. Besides, killing Crash would hopefully cause those pitiful heroes to lose all hope and run away.

"Wait..." Draksin suddenly said. For a split second, Isaac believed his master had just read his thoughts about not killing the others, but then the Dark One said, "Give me your piece of the Oni-Stone. That way, the precursors can track your presence in Chicago. You want to be found, remember?"

"Yes, master." Secretly relieved, Isaac removed the large fragment of the green rock from his pocket and handed it to Draksin. "Goodbye, master."

"Yeah, see ya, Biff."

* * *

**Roxas:** Wait, so does that whole thing about "feeding on the living" and "drinking from someone's veins" mean Draksin is a vampire?

_Yep. He's truly a stigma of darkness. And a bad mofo. Bio, please._

**Roxas:** Got it! Whoa, this one's long...

Isaac Bifford

**Age: **?  
**Gender: **Male  
**Species: **Eonian Lycan

Isaac was once a human being who lived by the same name in the United States. He was born in Chicago thirty seven years ago and joined a gang when he was ten, living like a hoodlum and street fighting. Isaac and his goons fought, mugged, and sometimes murdered the residence of their small town, becoming a serious problem to the community. One night, when he was twenty years old, Isaac decided to rob a rather short, green skinned bald man with two bolts in either side of his neck. The man (a.k.a. N. Brio) threw a random Mutation Potion at Isaac in self defense. After inadvertently touching and breathing in the potion's infectious contents, Isaac soon found brown fur sprouting all over his body, along with the emergence of claws, sharp teeth, and a snout.

Horrified by his new appearance, he went on a blind rampage throughout the city, alarming civilians and the military. Seeking refuge in the forests, Isaac was found by a lurking Draksin and taken under his care. After granting the wolfman the gift of immortality and some super powers, Draksin was satisfied to make Isaac, or "Biff" as he calls him, his primary apprentice. Shortly after meeting his three other comrades, Isaac and his new gang immediately started their first major campaign of villainy, which was unexpectedly thwarted by Orphco and Royt, resulting in seventeen years of being banished to the Realm of Oblivion. Now Isaac is free with his Master Draksin, and he's ready to unleash total carnage. Although he can be rough around the edges, this strong and silent wolfman actually seems to have a working conscience. Isaac Bifford is an O.C. of _CadeXHybrid._

**Roxas:** So, if I did my math correctly, and factored in that people don't age in the Realm of Oblivion, then Isaac should still be twenty years old?

_Yes. And I might add that Draksin spent a lot of time training Isaac while they were trapped in Oblivion. Oh yeah, and Isaac's two theme songs are..._

_Power – by Kanye West_

_And..._

_Indestructible – by Disturbed._

**Roxas:** Hey, look, it's my national anthem.

_Tch, shut up. I don't remember saying Justin Bieber (ZING!). Anyway, pick your poison and find them on my profile page under Isaac's name. Hybrid out, suckas!_


	77. You Are Not Ready

**Chapter 77: You Are Not Ready**

Crash flexed his arms in the bathroom mirror.

"Oh, man! All this fighting must be giving me one heck of a workout!" Crash observed in deep admiration of his newer, more cut and muscular features. His arms seemed to be gaining quite a bit of muscle mass while his midsection looked very much toned. Crash took on another pose as he said, "Look out, Wumpa Island—there's a new Titan romping around!"

Suddenly, someone rapped their fist on the opposite side of the bathroom's door. A certain raccoon yelled from the other side, "Hurry up in there, Crash! I got expensive teeth to brush, ya know!"

Crash sighed but kept grinning at his reflection. He thought about putting his shirt back on, but then he remembered that shirts weren't usually in his line of attire, so he ditched the idea. Besides, there wasn't a chance that he'd miss out on displaying his new "museum of macho."

Opening the bathroom's door, the bandicoot couldn't help but make a spectacle of himself and slide out, striking a pose in the process. The only other person around was Sly, who seemed uninterested in Crash's shenanigans. He pushed past him and irritably mumbled, "About time..."

Aku Aku suddenly floated by, hovering through the hall. Crash smiled again and said, "Hey, Aku Aku! Check this out!"

Crash struck another pose, showing off the two bulges on his arms. Aku Aku raised a green eyebrow and questioned, "What, are you just realizing that your muscle mass has increased?"

"Huh? You knew about these guns?" Crash asked, lowering his "weapons."

Just then, Coco, clearly a morning person, walked by the conversing pair and cheerily greeted them, "G'morning, Crash and Aku! What're you guys talking about?"

Aku Aku answered, "I was just beginning to inform Crash of the physical effect Mojo can have on the user's body."

Coco seemed to find this piece of new info very interesting. She repeated, "A physical effect? I didn't know Mojo worked that way."

"It does! You see, Mojo flows throughout your entire body, hitting a series of nodes that are like small batteries. When these little batteries are continuously hit, it gives your physical frame a workout..."

Aku Aku kept on explaining the exciting world of Mojo to the bandicoot siblings. Unfortunately, only Coco seemed to be the one interested. Crash just stood there with a bored, dull look in his eyes, his patience for the witchdoctor's long explanation running thin. Why couldn't he just say "Mojo makes you look hotter"?

Finally, with a yawn, Crash raised his hand and interjected, "Hey, Aku?"

"Yes, Crash?"

"I don't really care."

Coco turned and gave her brother a puzzled look, shortly followed by the witchdoctor. Crash had said it with such nonchalance that it caught both of them off guard. Before they could question him about it, Crash dismissed himself, "Well, later Aku. See ya Coco."

After Crash walked away, Coco said lowly to Aku, "Well, that was weird."

"You know, Crash has been in a funk since we were at the lemonade tavern last night," Aku Aku stated. "Maybe you could figure out what's wrong with him?"

"Hm..." Coco's thoughts trailed off as she remembered the discussion about Tawna the previous night. An idea forming in her head, she responded to Aku Aku's request, "Okay, I'll try..."

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Jak and Keira were having a bit of a quarrel. Keira was comfortably seated on the kitchen's counter-top while Jak leaned on the refrigerator.

Jak argued, "All I'm saying is that I deserve at least ten points for resisting Calypso's mind control!"

Keira shrugged and said, "So, and I killed her."

"WE killed her," Jak corrected.

"Ugh, just accept the fact that I beat you by one point, ya big baby!"

"No way!" Jak retaliated, anger apparent in his voice. He swiftly lifted his weight off the fridge and took a step in the young sage's direction, glaring directly into Keira's eyes.

Keira also lunged off of the counter-top, walking up to the blonde-green haired man and giving him a hard scowl. "What are you gonna do about it, Jak?"

Jak crossed his arms and stalked away in the opposite direction whilst saying, "Fine. I guess you need at least one victory every now and then, right?"

Feeling burned, Keira rushed after the man, angrily yelling, "What's that supposed to mean? Get back here, Jak!"

The three teens catching up on their history homework in the living room had heard the entire fight. They didn't seem too disconcerted by it, though. Only a little concerned, Kairi commented, "Man, they sounded really mad."

"Maybe I should go comfort Keira," Riku suggested with an unhidden grin.

Sora predicted, "No, trust me, in a few hours, they'll be all over each other again. It's how adults' minds work. At least, they _think_ they're adults."

"And how would you know that, Dr. Love?" Riku asked skeptically.

Sora grinned and replied, "I've come across way too many couples and pairings throughout the worlds to _not_ know something like that. Trust me—I'm a doctor."

"Well, doctor," Kairi interjected, getting back to their homework, "do you remember the nickname for the great General Kenji of the Gilded Era?"

"That's an easy one," Sora replied confidently. "They called him the 'Indestructible Master of War.'"

"Thanks, Dr. Love," the princess muttered tauntingly, scribbling down the answer on her paper.

Suddenly, a small, furry, orange head poked up from behind the couch Sora and Kairi were sitting on. The little ottsel's head asked energetically, "Did somebody say my name?"

Sora immediately opposed, "No way, Daxter. I'm Dr. Love."

"Yeah, we called it first," Riku added. "Sora's the doctor."

Daxter shook his head in a condescending manner. "Please, you're not even Professor Flirt, little boy! I, on the other hand, have a series of Ph.D.'s in Babeology, D-Cups, and, of course, love!"

"Oh, yeah?" Sora challenged, sounding a little inadequate in his sad attempt to shut Daxter up.

"Yeah! A love doctor must always sense when his professional duties are desired…like right now, a beautiful woman needs me in three, two…"

Out of the blue, Coco hurriedly walked through the living room and grabbed Daxter by his scrawny arm, all while saying, "Daxter, I need you to come with me to follow Crash!"

While being dragged out of the front door, Daxter winked back at the three perplexed teenagers.

Kairi blinked and sincerely stated, "…That was actually pretty cool."

* * *

Crash readied the volleyball-sized Wumpa Fruit in his hand. With a mighty heave, he launched the ovular fruit into the air, watching it soar past the jungle's thick tree canopy and disappear into the sky's blue infinity. Crash took five steps back and vigilantly stared into the bright sky, scanning all around for the—

"Ouch!" Crash cried as the Wumpa Fruit collided into his skull. The fruit had split down the middle when it hit him. Crash picked up both of halves of the Wumpa Fruit and studied them dejectedly. He asked himself, "How am I supposed to be ready for surprise attacks if this keeps happening?"

Taking a chomp out of one half, he looked into the sky as he chewed the citrus fruit. The bandicoot's face held a visibly downcast expression, and it wasn't just because the Wumpa Fruit had previously struck his nose. Deep down, he actually yearned for something. His life needed some drastic change. Right about now, he could use another episode with that mystery girl, Naomi. The next time he saw her up close, he promised himself that he would have a mature conversation with her without getting lightheaded and scaring her away with stupid things like, "You're kinda pretty."

Meanwhile, behind some of the thicket's bushes, Coco poked her head out and spied on Crash. Back behind the bushes, Coco told the little ottsel standing next to her, "He's just been standing there, looking up at the sky for the past five minutes, and I don't think there's a squiggly line floating in his eye. Do ya know what's wrong with him, Daxter?"

Rolling his eyes, Daxter crossed his arms and commanded, "Please call me by my professional name."

Sighing, Coco revised, "Do you know what's wrong with him, Dr. Love?"

Unfolding his arms, Daxter intellectually replied, "Well, it's as I predicted last night. Your brother is..."

"Yeah?" Coco edged.

"Is missing..."

"Missing what, doctor?"

"Is missing a girlfriend!" Daxter gave his prognosis, nodding fervently. "Yep, I've seen this kind of sickness plenty of times before. Lack of interest in anything interesting. Singing old rock band songs from last decade. And let's not forget staring up into the sky for prolonged amounts of time. Jak does these things all the time."

"Really?" Coco asked curiously.

"Nah, he's actually quite satisfied with ping-ponging between Keira and Ashelin all day. But Crash, however, needs a girlfriend, STAT!"

Raising her eyebrows, the bandicootess asked, "Well, where do we find those?"

Daxter answered, "You've gotta show 'em around the island a little bit. There's bound to be plenty of gorgeous babes who'd wanna be Crash's best friend!"

Coco scratched her chin in thought. "Yeah, I guess we could take him into the city sometime…"

Daxter nodded a few times. "Now if you'll excuse me, I sense that Jak is in dire need of some advice from the _love doctor."_ The furry ottsel made sure that those last two words were injected with enough suave charm to put down an elephant.

Coco rolled her eyes and let Daxter be on his way back to the house. She peered her head back over the bush to check on Crash, only to discover that he was nowhere to be found. "Hm," she mumbled to herself, "he must've gone to train deeper in the jungle."

However, the bandicootess' ears did pick up someone new talking not too far from her hiding spot. She quickly ducked and circled around the bush to remain hidden from the approaching individual. Coco dared to steal a quick look at the chattering person, who she found out to be their middle-aged plumber. Mario was chatting away with someone on his cellphone, and whatever the subject was seemed serious.

"I might as well eavesdrop," Coco quietly told herself, listening intently.

Mario asked the person through the phone in a ticked off tone, "Hey, hey, hey—who do ya think you're tawkin' to? You know I never skimp out on my payments!"

"Payments...?" Coco whispered to herself, brows furrowed in deep thought.

After some silence, Mario came back with, "I'm gonna have to call bull on that statement, bub! I paid you ALL the mushrooms you asked for—no more, no less!"

Coco gasped. Taking full refuge behind the bush again, she whispered, "So that's how Mario's been able to pay for hotels and stuff…He's in the illegal mushroom business!"

* * *

Daxter strolled to the cool and shaded side of the Bandicoot Home, where he found Jak briskly using a white rag to wipe down his blue and bronze hoverboard. There seemed to be a frustrated aura about him.

To Jak's right, Sora sat leisurely on a tree stump, giving the hoverboard some intrigued glances every now and then. Just then, Daxter greeted the two, "Howzit hangin', boys?"

Jak glared at the ottsel and asked darkly, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Hm…methinks Jak is havin' lady troubles," Daxter observed, earning a raised eyebrow from the long-eared man.

Sora crossed his arms and said with a grin, "Really, Dr. Love? What makes you say that?"

"Jak and I got this mental connection—you wouldn't understand. Anyway, out with it, Jak. What did she do? Did she say somethin' about your awful, crusty earwax?"

Jak sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "It's nothing, Dax. It's actually really stupid…"

"I'm sure it is," Daxter replied indifferently. Like orange lightning, he jumped over to the sitting Keyblader and landed on the boy's knee. Facing the blonde hero, he then added, "Cheer up—you know what Sora and I always say: if you're havin' girl problems, we feel bad for you, son. We got ninety-nine problems, but a chick ain't one!"

Sora gave the back of the ottsel's head a quizzical look. "When have I _ever_ said that?"

Jak suddenly exclaimed, "Oh, don't start doin' this again, Daxter. I don't need love advice from you!"

"Then what about from Sora?" Daxter inquired.

Jak rolled his eyes. "Please, you thought he was gay just last night."

"That's beside the point!" Daxter replied with a raised index finger.

"Um…_what?"_ Sora briefly interjected.

Ignoring Sora, Daxter continued, "Besides, I've gotta feeling this kid knows more about the babes than you do, Jak-y-boy."

Jak peevishly responded to Daxter, "If you really wanna give me advice, tell me where the nearest gun shop is."

Daxter jumped down from Sora's knee and started walking toward Jak, saying, "C'mon, open up, Jak! Sora might know something you don't know!"

Jak dropped the white rag on the ground and looked his over hoverboard, checking for missed smudges. Seeing his reflection in the base of the board, Jak asked, "And what might that be?"

Daxter turned around and asked Sora, "You've hit a home-run, haven't you?"

"DAXTER!" Jak shrieked in rage.

"It's a question!" Daxter shrieked back.

Puzzled at first, Sora started, "What's a home…oh."

"First base, at least?" Daxter tried again.

Scratching the back of his head, Sora sheepishly answered, "Uh, nope."

Jak scolded the little ottsel, "Come off it, Dax, he's only fifteen. He shouldn't be getting all romantic and whatnot, let alone sleeping with anyone."

Daxter retaliated, "Whoa! Tell me why I remember a certain, mute fifteen-year-old macho man who nearly decided to smooch it up with Keira after our first adventure—"

"—Um, actually…" Sora interrupted, receiving the undivided attention from both Jak and Daxter. He was looking a bit embarrassed about something, deciding if whether or not he should voice what he wanted to say. "Uh…"

"What is it, kid?" Jak asked impatiently.

"Well, technically, I have slept _with_ someone before…" Sora added uneasily with a nervous smile.

Daxter quickly nullified, "Parents don't count, kid."

"Kairi's not my parent."

Silence fell over the Demolition Duo as they stared at the Keyblader in disbelief. Daxter was the first to break the silence. "Score! I'm ridin' on your shoulder from now on!"

Jak blinked a few times before sketchily glancing off to the side and asking, "Um…so…so, how long ago was this?"

With Daxter giddily hanging on the boy's shoulder by his front paws, Sora plainly answered, "Oh, it was just two nights ago."

"More details, kid!" Daxter demanded, grinning with a single heightened eyebrow.

"Huh?" Sora shook his head. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to tell them about that night. Quickly, Sora clarified the whole situation, "Listen, we literally slept next to each other. That's it. That's all."

"Aha!" Jak unthinkingly blurted out. Looking to the side again, he cleared his throat nonchalantly.

To say Daxter looked disappointed is an understatement. He nearly recoiled away from the boy in shame. Finally, he found the words to ask, "Well, did you guys at least touch while you were doing a whole lot of nothing?"

Thinking back, Sora recalled how they went to sleep and woke up with his arm around her. "Yeah, we were."

Daxter's face brightened back up again as he turned to Jak and said, "Boom! Sora still wins!"

* * *

Draksin Mefisto lazily lounged under the shade of an oak tree somewhere in Tennessee's outskirts. He wasn't much for the whole fresh air and sunshine thing. Gazing into the sky through his black sunglasses, he noted the position of the sun and the time of the day. Cursing lowly to himself, he figured it was only just an hour after noon. He was really hungry...heck, blood OR food would suffice.

He turned his head and glanced around at the green pasture surrounding him. There were even some sunflowers scattered about the meadow. Tweeting birds were singing in the oak tree just above the Dark One. Such a beautiful scene made Draksin cringe inside. He really needed to get a dark, murder-you-for-breakfast castle one of these days.

And while he was at it, maybe he should find some fresh blood. And then something good to actually eat...like chicken soup. But until it was dark enough for him to be able to lurk in shadows and prey on random victims, he was just going to spend the day lazing around on the grass. Hey, why not? He was used to being a lazy bum, anyway.

And that's when he saw it; a baby bird learning how to fly for the first time in the tree above him. Once it learned to fly, it would go through its short life like any other avian animal. Unfortunately, the inexperienced bluebird had taken off too soon from a branch and instantly began to plummet to the ground.

In one swift movement, Draksin caught it in his gloved hand and clenched his fingers tightly, hearing the bones crack and crumble.

"Consider that a favor."

* * *

Hanging upside down on a horizontally grown tree limb, Crash took a pause from his abdominal crunches exercise and glanced at the incoming piece of floating wood. Recognizing his guardian, Crash smiled and waved, "What's up, Aku Aku!"

"Hello, Crash," greeted the witchdoctor. "Glad to see you're feeling much better."

"Yeah, I just needed to stretch a little bit."

"Listen, Crash, before you ran off to train this morning, I wanted to tell you about a solemn premonition of mine. In the very near future, you will face colossal challenges that will most likely rip you apart. If you were to fail, then the hope of this island and possibly the world would be lost to evil. Bad Mojo would spread quicker than an airborne disease. In short, you are not ready."

Crash jumped down from the tree and landed on the ground right side up. With a concerned expression, Crash asked, "Gee, Aku, what should I do?"

"I've decided to put you through a rigorous training regiment," Aku Aku answered sternly. "Maybe after a few rounds of the training, you'll be ready. Also…I predict that my own demise is near."

"What?" Crash exploded fearfully.

"I can't tell if it's my brother who ends my existence, but all I know is that it is a powerfully immense source of Evil Mojo. My days are limited, Crash."

Crash suddenly stood in a battle ready position. "Well, then that's all the more reason to get started right away! C'mon, Aku Aku, let's train!"

Aku Aku nodded with a gentle smile. "Right, Crash. Now, I'm going to take you back to the Mojo Training Room that you and Coco were sparring in before. Do you remember the place?"

"Yeah, it's that space-looking place with all the floating rocks. How are you gonna train me, anyway? You don't have arms or legs, ya know."

"Which is why I will forge counterfeit spirits of Reiden, Calypso, and Dr. Mavo to fight you."

"Them again, eh? Alright, sounds like a challenge. I'll pick them all off!"

Aku closed his golden eyes in thought. "Hm…Okay, I'll be ready to take you as soon as you calm your senses."

Crash closed his eyes and crossed his arms, awaiting the witchdoctor's extraction. Suddenly, he felt the area around him quickly illuminate with green light before being transported to the Mojo Room.

* * *

Crash opened his eyes to notice that he was standing on a circular stone platform that stretched out as far as a football field. The Mojo Room's ethereal sky was a mixture of greens and purples lingering around the star-spangled atmosphere. Gray colored asteroids could be seen perpetually floating around the mysteriously enchanted sky, some floating mere feet from the stone platform which Crash stood upon.

Spying some very distant comets shoot across the sky, Crash shouted with an echo, "Yo, Aku! I'm ready for the goons, now! Could ya bring out Reiden first? I kinda miss him."

Suddenly, Aku Aku's booming voice echoed throughout the Mojo Room, "I don't think you quite understood me when I said that you'd be going through a rigorous training regiment. Look up, Crash."

Crash did as he was told and saw that his father's sword and sheath complete with the strap were gradually descending to his position. Taking the brilliant sword by the hilt, the bandicoot looked it over and said loudly, "Thanks!"

"You're going to need that," Aku Aku replied. "Good luck, Crash."

Suddenly, a bright column of light erupted on the stone platform's surface ten feet away from the bandicoot. Having fastened the sheath and strap around his torso, Crash readily held his inherited sword in both hands, muttering under his breath, "Is that you, Reiden?"

Just then, something happened that completely took Crash by surprise. Two more columns of light erupted on the platform on either side of the first one.

"Uh…what's going on?" Crash asked in bewilderment.

The three light sources dissipated, revealing Reiden in the middle with Mavo and Calypso on either side. Not only were they giving the bandicoot evil smirks, but they were also each in their powerful second forms. Reiden was shirtless with flames dancing in his arms and shoulders; Mavo's skin was gray and his right arm had been turned into the single claw; wearing her ninja suit, Calypso seemed to be the same physical size as her regular form, but monstrous claws were sprouted from her fingernails, along with two white wings on her back.

Suddenly, Crash's face exploded with realization as he screamed, "Oh, CRUD! I have to fight them all at ONCE?"

Taking flight, Reiden charged forward, followed by Mavo and Calypso, all out for bandicoot-blood.

* * *

_Crash has no choice but to get stronger because Isaac Bifford is gonna be one TOUGH boss fight. (Not to mention the fights in **Uka Uka Reborn** are pretty crazy.) Next chapter, Crash struggles to get in line with Aku Aku's new regiment, getting his orange butt handed to him harshly. Tune in for **Outfought!**_

_And even later, Draksin goes out hunting for a victim to get some o' that red stuff. Stay tuned._


	78. Outfought

**Shao Kahn:** Round 1…FIGHT!

**Chapter 78: Outfought**

Reiden rammed his forearm into Crash's nose, sending the befuddled bandicoot staggering backwards as he realized he'd just been hit. Soaring from behind the emperor, Demon Mavo threw three kicks into Crash's body, finishing him off with a heavy punch courtesy of his enlarged left hand.

Falling to the ground on his back, Crash began to see stars as he realized his upper body was currently being repeatedly pummeled by Calypso's fists. Thrusting his feet upward into the sorceress' abdomen, he managed to escape the bad-guy-brigade, rocketing upward and regrouping on the top of a floating meteorite.

However, he didn't have much time to recuperate because a razor sharp claw had just been swung at his head. Crash managed to block the incoming attack with his sword, only to fall victim to Mavo's boot, which had made its way to the marsupial's stomach.

Having the wind completely knocked out of him, Crash barely had time to register that a flaming fist was on its way to Crash's head from above. Quickly pushing away from Dr. Mavo, Crash watched as Reiden's fist created a sizeable crater into the meteorite's surface. Barely having time to gape at the destruction, he felt two claws scratch into his back from behind. Turning around, he received four individual kicks from Calypso, along with one more relentless uppercut.

Suddenly, the air near Crash became dry and humid. Right in front of him, Reiden had materialized via pyro-powers and delivered an overhead smash attack that sent Crash hurling into the stone platform's surface below. With a painful collision, Crash's body created cracks in the ground, but he quickly stood to his feet and fiercely stared his three opponents down.

Reiden, Calypso, and Mavo were all floating in the air, smirking evilly at the injured bandicoot. Wordlessly, both sorceress and scientist dashed downward to Crash in wide arcs, while Reiden simply disappeared in a flurry of flames.

"Gotta think quick!" Crash told himself.

Suddenly, he began to feel heat not two feet in front of him. Bracing himself, he successfully managed to catch the appearing Reiden Long's foot with his hand. Back-tracking, Crash found himself eminently sandwiched between Mavo and Calypso, both rapidly approaching on either side of him, so he jumped upward and utilized his Mojo powers to fly. However, it literally took no time at all for Reiden to appear just above him with his elbow aimed down at the top of Crash's skull.

_CRACK!_

Experiencing the most pain he felt since the real Reiden had kicked him HARD in his side back in Buru—and even worse than when his possessed sister had judo-kicked him HARD in the crotch just the previous day—Crash grabbed the pulsating region on his skull in pure agony, a single tear forming beneath one of his bulging eyes.

"YEE-OW!" Crash exclaimed, much to the emperor's delight.

Just then, Crash's ears picked up on the sounds of flapping wings. Only a split-second later, Crash felt an oversized hand wrap itself around his ankle, yanking him downward from Reiden's elbow. While being dragged downward, against his will, through the air by the harpy sorceress, Crash received numerous punches and kicks from Mavo and Reiden Long along the way.

Crash finally broke free from Calypso's grasp and flew over on top of a super-sized floating meteor. Breathing hard, he could feel his strength rapidly expending as his vision skewed and blurred. Yelling across the Mojo Room to the three mimic villains, Crash hollered, "HEY! Can you at least give me a handicap or something?"

Apparently not. Calypso was already dashing through the air at full speed, claws bared. Crash figured this wasn't going to last much longer, anyway, so he remained on the meteorite, awaiting the sorceress' arrival. Immediately upon advent, Crash received strike after strike against both of his forearms as he guarded against each blow.

Crash grunted lowly from the repetition of punches, "Urg…!"

Just then, Reiden Long joined in on raining punches over the losing bandicoot's forearms with Calypso. Feeling both sets of massive and fiery fists constantly strike him at focused intervals, Crash nearly fainted from fatigue and collapsed.

Well…he would have collapsed if Demon Mavo hadn't decided to approach from the rear and drive his long claw into the center of Crash's back. Looking down, Crash observed the tip of the scientist's claw protruding from just over his bellybutton.

* * *

And just like that, Crash was brought back to Wumpa Island, the real world.

Breathing hard and rubbing his hands over his stomach, Crash realized he sustained no real life-threatening injuries. His belly, unwounded and unscathed, was still smooth, yellow, and furry. Feeling around on his back, he came to the same conclusion. Looking back up, he saw the floating mask hovering just inches away from him.

"Wow…" Crash exhaled, staring deeply into Aku Aku's yellow eyes. "They tore me apart! Why didn't ya tell me you were sickin' all three of them on me at once?"

"I did not wish to shatter your confidence," Aku answered sincerely.

Rather sarcastically, Crash flatly replied, "Gee, thanks…"

"But now that you know, Crash, I want you to go back in there and try to beat them again."

Scratching his head, the marsupial tried to hide his discouraged feelings about the fight and replied, "O-Okay, Aku."

Aku advised, "This time, I want you to stay on the attack so they won't get as many hits on you."

"Right…"

Standing tall, Crash calmed his senses again and allowed Aku Aku to transport him back to the Mojo Room.


	79. Outmatched

**Shao Kahn: **Round 2…FIGHT!

**Chapter 79: Outmatched**

Back inside the ethereal Mojo Room, Crash readily stood with his father's sword in-hand as he did before the first fight. The three pillars of light exploded on the ground, revealing Crash's infamous adversaries. The silent, evil trio stood a good fifteen feet away from the bandicoot, smirks plastered on all their faces.

Crash cried, "Let's do this!"

Dashing forward, Crash took aim and swung his sword at Reiden, who vaulted backwards and shot out a fireball. Crash quickly slashed at the flaming projectile, letting it dissipate against his blade, and parried a hostile attack from Dr. Mavo's claw-arm. Caught in a blade-lock with the demented doctor, Crash wasn't prepared for the four sharp claws that dug across his back, courtesy of Harpy Calypso's hand.

Breaking away from Mavo, Crash remembered that he needed to stay on the offensive. Sheathing his sword, Crash leapt forward and began delivering punches to both sorceress and scientist. His right fist focused on Mavo while his left handled Calypso to the best of its ability. The villains blocked and dodged punch after punch from the marsupial, slowly gaining the upper hand. Finally, Mavo caught Crash's fist with his normal hand and Calypso sent a callous fist of her own across the bandicoot's cheek, greatly stunning him. Mavo took his next turn by swiftly planting his foot in Crash's abdomen, causing the stunned hero to lurch forward in anguish. Calypso finished off the combo with a supreme uppercut that made Crash go airborne.

Before being in the air for too long, Crash felt both of Reiden's fists hammer down on him from above in one single strike. Crash hit the ground like a meteor, but he wasn't down for the count just yet. Standing back up again, Crash drew his sword to parry Dr. Mavo's incoming claw attack. Vengefully, Crash kicked Mavo hard in the midsection, sending him skidding to the ground. Crash spied Calypso flying at him from the side and quickly jumped vertically into the air. Calypso had foolishly followed him, soon wishing she hadn't when Crash stopped his flight short and brought his foot crashing into her face. If she had a voice, she would've screamed out in pain.

Right then and there, Reiden appeared in the air from a flurry of fire and rammed his fist into Crash's stomach; the bandicoot's eyes and mouth shot open from the sudden attack. Reiden slowly removed his fist from the bandicoot's stomach and proceeded to ignite his hand like a torch. With a smile that said, "Victory is mine," Reiden reeled back his flaming fist and threw it at Crash, finishing the battle…or so he thought.

Crash had adeptly caught Reiden's scorching fist. Ignoring the high temperature his right hand was currently experiencing, Crash glared into the perplexed emperor's eyes and yanked Reiden closer to him. This little act ended with Crash throwing his knee into Reiden's gut, completely stunning him.

Suddenly, Mavo approached from behind and slashed at Crash's back. Floating forward, Crash failed to avoid the attack and sustained a significant injury on his back. Losing his patience, Crash screamed, "THAT'S IT!"

Simultaneously, various amounts of white Mojo began to flow into his body from all sides, greatly augmenting his strength and energy. Hearing someone fly at him from behind, Crash threw back his elbow, which landed in Reiden's chest. Next, he roundhouse-kicked the approaching scientist in the chin. Just ahead of him, Calypso fiercely dashed through the air, delivering a swift swipe of her harpy claws. Crash dodged those claws and rammed his fist into her nose.

The bandicoot and twisted sorceress initiated a round of hand-to-hand combat, each blocking and parrying unsuccessful blows as they flew through the air. Crash threw one unlucky punch, which wound up being caught by Calypso's massive hand. Smiling sweetly, Calypso followed up by repeatedly punching Crash's face as she held his captured fist. As Calypso finished pummeling Crash, she just held the marsupial's limp body by his wrist. Like a ragdoll, she tossed the bandicoot downward to the ground, watching him bounce slightly from the collision.

Still some fight left in him, Crash weakly stood to his feet again. Feeling his consciousness begin to slip away, he saw three blurry Reiden Longs charging at him from far away. Laughing lightly to himself, Crash said in between intakes of breath, "I…I think I'm shutting down."

Inevitably, a flaming fist swept itself across Crash's face. Feeling the ground meet his back, Crash weakly lay on the ground as the evil emperor dominantly smirked at him, arms crossed in a pompous fashion. Crash smiled back at him.

The next thing he knew, his face was under Reiden's tabi.

* * *

Crash appeared back in the jungles of Wumpa Island again, bent over with his hands on his knees. Panting, he said to the grass below him, "Almost had 'em…"

Floating above Crash's head, Aku Aku commended, "That was much better than last time, Crash. You lasted a bit longer and did much more damage. Also, you finally decided to use your Mojo!"

Tiredly sitting on his bottom, Crash said, "They still beat me, though."

Aku Aku pondered for a second and said, "Hm…I noticed that you're better off focusing on one opponent for short periods of time. Maybe you should do that more."

Crash thought about it. Whenever he fought the villains one at a time, he felt like he was juggling them in a way. Crash would attack one person, turn around to counterattack the next, and bounce off the last. It almost felt empowering. Crash replied to the witchdoctor mask, "Oh, I see what you mean! Juggle them around like circus monkeys!"

"Um…not quite sure how you came up with that analogy, but if it works for you, go ahead, Crash!" Aku Aku supported. He also added, "You know, Crash, I noticed that you only use your sword on Mavo, and not Reiden or Calypso. Why is that?"

Crash shrugged and answered, "'Cuz they don't have something sharp to use, like me and Mavo. It's only fair, you know?"

Aku Aku smiled at the bandicoot's honorable tactics. "Yes, I see."

Crash added, "Plus, I don't wanna depend too much on this sword. I'm better at fighting with my hands on the ground, anyway."

* * *

_I sold my disc copy of Infamous 1 to Gamestop. Then I went on the Playstation Store to get the free downloadable version of the same game. _

_That money I got from Gamestop? I put it into my preorder for Infamous 2…WHICH I GOT YESTERDAY!_

_Oh, my god! Cole, you are a bona-fide beast and deserve your own DEATHMATCH! (Probably with Alex Mercer from Prototype)_

…_Anyway, it seems that Crash is learning new and better tactics. We all know he needs them against his fight with Isaac (and Uka Uka, Pinstripe, Tiny, and N. Tropy.) Will it be enough to stop the crazed wolfman?_

_On the next chapter, Draksin is out hunting for blood. He turns it into a twisted game that terrorizes a young woman. You may know her…_

_Stay tuned for __**First Blood!**_

_I'm gonna go play Infamous 2, now._


	80. First Blood

_Sorry for the late update. I've been meditating in the Sahara Desert ever since I lost one of my nine lives. That crap was terrifying!_

_On an unrelated note…__**Transformers: Dark of the Moon**__ was better than a hurricane of hot girls hitting me all at once. Ahem, moving on…_

**Chapter 80: First Blood**

Draksin Mefisto couldn't stand waiting sometimes. Just the thought of lethargically sitting in one spot really irked his patience. If he couldn't find any fresh blood soon, then he would at least make sure he got some grub. It was between five and five thirty, and the day was still young. Having grown weary of Tennessee's sunny rural pastures, he had teleported to a much busier part of the United States: the city of Miami, Florida.

His frequently growling gut bothered him nonstop as he stood watching over the cloud-covered city. Currently, he was standing on a skyscraper within the city's downtown district, perched high above the plethoric cars and pedestrians. This city's metropolitan ward was much larger than Tennessee's, granting Draksin a broader choice of victims to choose from.

Looking down through his shades, Draksin smirked when he remembered a fun game he used to play during tedious occasions like this. Raising his index finger, he twirled it around for a second before pointing down to the city somewhere. Simultaneously, a supernatural, basketball-sized portal opened up a few inches from his face. Draksin used his dark powers to make the portal show a close-up scene of where his finger was pointing.

Acting like a surveillance camera, the portal displayed the heavy traffic of rush-hour down below, showing off images of congested streets filled with nearly stationary automobiles. Moving his finger slightly to the left, the portal's image panned leftward as well, showing a close-up view of some of the city's many pedestrians.

As the Dark One observed each person through the small portal, he made small comments like, "Too ugly, too bald, too heavy, too non-human…" Finally, after spotting a young brunette in her early twenties idly stepping out of a beauty salon, Draksin narrowed his eyes and said, "You'll do."

* * *

The young woman, Lara, strolled down the dense sidewalk, wearing sunglasses, a blue take top, and beige cargo pants. She stopped to rummage through her purse and answer a brief phone call, and then went back to casually walking. Strangely, her natural instinct told her that she was being followed by someone. As she walked, she took off her sunglasses and inspected the lenses. She watched the convex reflection that her sunglasses displayed for a short period of time, noticing no one but regular pedestrians minding their own business behind her.

Satisfied, Lara made to slip the shades back on but stopped short when she saw a man dressed in primarily black colors casually leaning on the wall of a nearby building next to her. He had black shades of his own, which opaquely obscured his eyes. As Lara passed by him, he gave her a chilling last-second grin that she nearly didn't notice.

Frowning, she kept walking and heard the pale-skinned man shuffle his feet as he pulled his weight off the building's wall. Lara stopped at the nearest intersection and crossed the street with some other citizens. Briefly, she looked back and saw that the strange man was no longer there. However, after reaching the sidewalk across the street, she nearly jumped in surprise to see the same man leaning against the pole of a lamppost not two feet away from her. Once again, the man shot a quick smile to her. Not one to make a public confrontation, Lara quickened her pace down the sidewalk, hastily weaving between pedestrians to get away from the eerie drifter.

As soon as she could, she entered the nearest restaurant that had enough crowded people in it. Inside the dimly lit café, Lara approached the counter and tried to act casual as she requested from the bartender in her British accent, "One ginger ale, please."

The gray-haired bartender smiled with a raised eyebrow and replied, "Comin' right up." The old man noted Lara's accent and commented, "It's a long way from England. That where you're from?"

Only half-paying attention and glancing back at the bar's front doors every now and then, Lara answered belatedly, "Uh…yes. I'm from Wimbledon, London…" Lara finally broke her locked gaze from the bar's front doors and met it with the bartender's. She smiled and held out her hand. "Lara Croft."

The bartender took Lara's hand in his. "Victor Sullivan. Just call me Sully. What are you doing all the way in Miami, if I might ask?" Sully asked with an intrigued grin.

"I'm here gathering funds for an expedition," Lara answered frankly.

Sully rubbed his chin in brief thought. "Sounds a lot like what another friend of mine is doing, right now…"

"Small world." Lara's expression suddenly became rigid as she said, "But I think I'm getting followed by some creep outside."

Sully glanced over at a nearby window nervously. He told Lara lowly, "We get a lot of creeps this time of the year. Best you stay in crowded areas, Miss Croft."

"Thanks, Victor," said Lara with a small smile.

"Please—call me Sully…" Sully replied with a charismatic grin.

"Well, Sully, can you tell me where the ladies' room is?"

As the bartender politely pointed off toward the back of the café, Lara slid off the stool and trekked across the crowded establishment. Unseen by anyone else, a black mist wafted along the café's ceiling, following Lara into the bathroom without pause.

Inside the empty, semi-clean bathroom, Lara was leaning over the sink, reevaluating the uncanny situation she had found herself in. Should she call the police? Was it wise to trap herself in this restaurant? Should she go out and face him, whoever he is? She looked at the mirror in front of her, seeking the answers to those stressing questions in her own reflection. For a long moment, she just stood and stared at herself.

Suddenly, a male janitor cleaning one of the stalls behind her screamed, "What in the name of MOSES?"

Lara looked back in surprise, as she thought herself to be alone in the bathroom, but she most certainly was _not._ Besides the custodian, who was fearfully poking his head out of the stall he was cleaning, the same pale-skinned man from the street was standing right behind her with his gloved hand outstretched and inches away from her head, looking like he had just been caught in the act. The pale man's shades were removed, revealing his deep scarlet eyes. Instinctively, Lara planted her hands on the sink behind her and threw both of her boot-clad feet into the stalker-man's midsection, pushing him backwards into a stall.

"Ugh!" Draksin bellowed as he fell backwards inside the small stall with a crash, followed by a splash.

Draksin wearily stood back to his feet, an extremely disgruntled expression plastered over his face. Part of his hairdo was drenched from falling backwards into the toilet. Stepping out of the stall, Draksin noticed that Lara was long gone from the bathroom and probably the little café, too. He had her right where he wanted her, and she had no idea that he was looming behind her due to his not having a reflection. Irritated, Draksin muttered, "Of course." Shaking the water from his hair like a dog, Draksin stated, "I hate this country. Victims are much easier to find in London."

It was then that he looked over to the short custodian, who was still frightfully shaking where he stood. In a matter of seconds, Draksin had the terrified man against the wall, firmly holding him by his shoulders. He'd better make this quick before the authorities were alerted and interrupted him. Glaring at the shorter man, Draksin said before plunging his jaws into his neck, "You'll suffice for now. Oh, well…one down, two to go."

* * *

_A minute to speak my mind, please…_

_Lara Croft is from the Tomb Raider series, which is getting a frighteningly realistic reboot sometime in 2012. I love Lara Croft, so I couldn't make her a victim of Draksin's. After all, she is my videogame mistress. (I'm cheating on Tifa Lockhart with her.) And I've seen some footage from that game. Poor chick gets horribly injured every five seconds._

_That Victor Sullivan dude is from the Uncharted series. I've been repeatedly freezing myself in cryogenic hibernation for the next game, Uncharted 3. Sully was referring to Nathan Drake's funding for his next expedition in Uncharted: Golden Abyss, which is coming out on the PSVita and takes place sometime before the very first Uncharted game. As you can probably tell, my wallet is going to take an $$-beating in the near future._

_Any-who…_

_Next chapter, Mario brings up a promise Goofy made not too long ago about visiting his fiancée in Chicago, Illinois. After a chat with Jeycko, the heroes decide that a trip to the U.S. is in order (especially after the unwanted arrival of a certain someone)! But some of our heroes choose to stay on Wumpa Island and further their Mojo training before moving on. Stay tuned for—the chapter that should already be updated by now—__**Reasonable Doubt**__!_


	81. Reasonable Doubt

**Chapter 81: Reasonable Doubt**

Wumpa Island: 7:24 p.m.…

Inside the living room of the Bandicoot Home, Bentley was quietly reading something from his laptop in his wheelchair. Deeply entranced by his readings, he didn't seem to notice the two curious females appear on either side of him. They were the red and blue-haired combo of Kairi and Keira, both kneeling next to Bentley on either side of his chair.

In an intrusive yet innocent way, Kairi asked, "Hey, Bentley, whatcha doin'?"

Clearing his throat, the turtle answered, "Oh, I'm just reading over Dr. Mavo's notes from his lab."

Keira craned her head to the side and asked, "Mavo's notes? When did ya get those?"

"While we were reading over his toxin annotations back in the lab, I was downloading every single one of his note files to my flash drive." Bentley tapped the small USB drive plugged into his laptop and said conceitedly, "It's, ahem, got thirty-two gigabytes of flash memory. Yep, all the true geeks carry one with them wherever they go."

Keira commented with a small laugh, "Clank and Coco don't hold a candle to you, Bentley."

Kairi asked, "So did you find anything good on there?"

"You bet!" Bentley affirmed. "Dr. Mavo actually typed in entries from his everyday life, starting when he was recruited by Draksin."

Kairi inferred, "So…it's like a diary!"

"You could put it that way, sure," Bentley said with a few nods.

"I was actually looking for a diary back at Reiden's palace," Kairi informed matter-of-factly. "But now that I think about it, I doubt the guy could even read and write."

"Bet you wouldn't say that to his face!" Keira challenged.

Kairi countered the blue-haired teen, "Hey, I fought him _one on one_…for about a good sixty seconds until Sora showed up."

Bentley interjected, "So in his diary, he wrote down a lot of events, like the time Draksin gave him immortality. This entry reveals something very interesting about his leader…"

"What is it, Bentley?" Keira pried.

"Believe it or not, in order to gain immortality, Mavo had to let Draksin drain—"

"Hey, Bentley," Mario interrupted, walking in from the front door, "thanks fah lettin' me use ya phone."

Catching the smart-phone Mario had tossed his way, Bentley replied, "No problem. Who did you need to call?"

Sardonically, Mario retorted, "Ghostbusters. On a different note, I need you to hold up your end of the deal, pal."

A bit lost from what the plumber was getting at, Bentley asked, "Um…what deal are you talking about?"

"I helped you mooks win the Twisted Wipeout races, so now ya owe me big time!" Mario replied in sort of a crazed yell.

Shaking his head, Bentley once again asked, "What exactly do we owe you, Mario?"

"That dog guy, Goofball, or whatever his name is—promised that you all would come to Chicago and apologize to my fiancée!" Mario revealed.

Recollecting that conversation, Keira said in a low exhale, "Oh, yeah…"

"So, you want us to go to Chicago with you? To say sorry to your soon-to-be wife?" Bentley verified.

"Geez, it's like a merry-go-round in here!" Mario complained, earning a rolling of the eyes from the turtle. "Listen, I haven't even tawked to her since before the first preliminary race, and facing her alone now would just be flippin' suicide! You guys gotta come with me so she can believe my obviously improbable stories!"

Keira suggested, "Just tell her you were battling supervillains. It's not that hard. Should she have any reason to not believe you?"

"Let's just say I'm not as much of an honest guy as I'd like to be," said the plumber with shifty eyes. "Look, I need to bring everyone to Chicago. It has to be _everyone_, or she won't believe me! Ya gotta do this for me, guys. C'mon, I even beat up that blonde kid with the sword for free! And don't forget that I helped you guys escape those mountains thanks to my _Iron Toadstool."_

Sighing, Keira stood up and told Kairi, "Hey, can you go outside and gather everyone here? Just to stop Mario's whining."

"Sure," Kairi positively responded. Then, with a visibly single-minded expression, she asked, "You want me to get Jak, too?"

"Yeah, go ahead," Keira replied, sourness in her tone.

Slowly at first, Kairi asked, "…Is he in the workout room?"

Keira proclaimed. "I don't know where he is, and I don't care." Rather late, Keira caught on to what the girl was thinking. However, Kairi had already disappeared out the front door.

* * *

Back in the Mojo Room, Crash's level of skill had increased vastly since his first fight against the faux-villains. As of now, Reiden, Arden, and Mavo were all lying unconscious on the stone floor while Crash stood with a victorious expression. The bandicoot only seemed to ail from one cut on his left arm and three scratches on his back. Other than those wounds, he seemed perfectly fine.

Spinning his sword around and then holstering it on his back, Crash called out, "I beat 'em, Aku Aku! I guess I'm ready to save the world!"

Aku Aku's voice resonated back to Crash, "Good show, my boy! Most impressive indeed!"

"No problem. It only took five tries!"

Aku Aku replied, "It's not over yet, Crash. Have you noticed something incomplete about your enemies, yet?"

"Um…" Crash looked around at the downed villains, wondering what in heck the witchdoctor mask was talking about. Reiden didn't seem incomplete. Neither did Mavo. Calypso probably looked a little less monstrous than she did at the Grand Prix, but that was about it. Crash scratched his head and asked, "What d'ya men, Aku?"

"Your enemies are not at full power. Dr. Mavo only has one claw, and Calypso isn't in her full harpy form. And don't forget that Reiden has a separate dragon form."

Crash's confident face cracked and shattered into a terrified one. "Okay, I can handle a double-clawed Mavo, and Calypso didn't look too tough either…but I can't handle another dang, dirty dragon!"

Aku calmly replied, "But you must if you wish to be strong enough to defeat Isaac and Draksin."

Crash apprehensively said, "Okay, I'll try…"

Like zombies, Reiden, Calypso, and Mavo rose to their feet, reenergized and rejuvenated. Mavo's left arm began to bubble sickeningly and form into a second claw; Calypso's irises disappeared as her skin grew pale and her body began to slightly expand; flames swarmed around Reiden's entire body as he took on the freakish form of an inflating winged reptile.

Grasping his sword, Crash charged forward and screamed a long and drawn-out battle cry. Before earning the chance to take a swing at Dragon Reiden, the gargantuan beast of a reptile kicked the miniscule bandicoot with the force of a speeding freight train.

After skidding along the surprisingly coarse floor of the Mojo Room for fifty feet, Crash stood up and tried shrugging off the awful pain in his back. As Harpy Calypso and Demon Mavo went airborne and accelerated towards the bandicoot, Crash casually said, "Alright, I'm drawing a blank here, Aku."

"The most important tactic in battle is _strategy_, Crash," the witchdoctor mask's voice resonated.

"So...what strategy should I use?"

"You must use your brain to figure this out, Crash!"

"...Right, so what part of my brain should I use, again?"

"The part that comes up with good plans!"

"...Okay, let's say you had to use that part of _your_ brain..."

"Just defeat Mavo and Calypso first!"

Crash threw a thumbs-up sign. "Got it! But next time, can ya tell me sooner?"

"Why?"

"'Cuz they already beat me."

Indeed, both of Mavo's claws had impaled Crash's stomach, and Calypso's teeth were firmly clamped down on his shoulder. Interestingly, Crash's only gripe was that he could hardly move.

"C'mon, guys, give me some wiggle-room, here!" Crash complained.

Before Reiden got a chance to demonstrate his reptilian wrath, Crash was thankfully teleported back to the real world.

* * *

Sighing, Aku Aku said, "Well, at least you've mastered taking on three powerful enemies at once. We'll work on fighting multiple monsters later."

Yawning in the sunlight of Wumpa Island, Crash agreed, "Yeah, I'm pretty awesome! Let's go get some dinner."

Meanwhile, deep in the wild jungle of Wumpa Island, Sly Cooper was standing atop a scenic cliff with one foot perched on a smooth boulder. Breathing in the fresh air, he smiled down at the tropical, multicolored vegetation below him. The sun was going down. It was one of those days where nothing else seemed to matter. Just him and the fresh air…

Sly's eyes spotted many birds flying in the sky's distance, one of which had a rotary propeller, a bubble-like helm, and two rudders. Wait…that's a helicopter. Gasp.

"Oh…my…" Sly sputtered. He recognized that chopper anywhere.

Immediately, he ran in the opposite direction, jumping over logs and weaving between twisted branches until the Bandicoot Home came into view. Running along a wooden bridge, Sly accidentally ran into Link. Nearly getting knocked over, Link greeted, "Hey there, Sly. We've been looking all over for you!"

"No time!" Sly hastily replied, running past the Hylian.

"Well, Mario requested our presence inside the house!" Link called after the raccoon.

"Is that right?" Sly said, temporarily jogging in place. "Good, then everyone's inside."

Walking inside the Bandicoot home's living room, Sly addressed the other heroes sitting around, "Guys, there's something I gotta tell you—!"

"Hold ya horses, fast-cat!" Mario suddenly put down. "I'm the one tawkin', here!"

"But—!"

Mario bellowed, "Shut it! Now, there's somethin' all of you have to do for me."

Sitting on the couch between Coco and Crunch, Daxter dreaded, "Oh no, I don't like where this is going…"

"You guys gotta come to Chicago and help me face my fiancée," Mario explained. "She ain't gonna be happy about me being gone for so long. The least you guys can do is come with me and have dinner with us. Peaches loves having guests over."

"Does she?" Coco asked with a smile. "Then we'd love to come."

"Yeah, I could go for a home cooked meal," Murray said, rubbing his pink belly.

Mario looked around at everybody else. "Right, so is everyone onboard?"

"I'm good with it," said Riku.

"A decent meal? I'm there," Crash agreed.

Suddenly, a bright flash nearly blinded everyone in the room. After the heroes' eyes readjusted, they came to see the precursor Jeycko standing in the middle of the room. He was stretching his back and yawning when he noticed the many eyes on him. Startled, he yelped, "WHOA! You guys havin' a cult meeting or something?"

"No, we're actually planning a vacation!" Sora declared with a smile.

"Vacation?" Jeycko repeated. "Ah, sweet—where?"

Still holding urgent news, Sly interrupted, "Um, guys? I still gotta tell you—!"

"Please, Sly, we're having a conversation!" Jeycko cut off, addressing the Cooper's rudeness. "Now, where exactly are you little scamps plannin' to go?"

"We're headin' to Chicago," Bentley answered. "Mario's gonna be treating us to dinner."

"Well, now, isn't that nice of him!" Jeycko commented. "Wait, that reminds me! Chicago is in America, right?"

"Yep," Coco answered.

"Well, news stations say that a wolfman attacked two border patrol officers last night on the beaches of Melborne, Florida! That wolfman named Isaac Bifford is your fourth bad guy to take out!"

Suddenly, everyone in the room (except for Sly) erupted in whoops and cries of joy. Daxter yelled, "Awesome! We take out this wolf sucka, and there's only one more bad-boy boss battle after that!"

"Then we get to go home!" Kairi added with a fist-pump.

Without getting interrupted this time, Sly Cooper interjected, "Wait, so we're going away—from here?"

"Uh, yeah," Ratchet responded. "Stay with us, dude."

Sly replied, "Good, because Carmelita Fox JUST landed here!"

"WHAT?" Bentley and Murray suddenly exclaimed in unison.

"Who's Cammelina?" Crash asked nonchalantly from the beanbag chair.

"Your worst nightmare!" Sly replied. "She's also my girlfriend. It's a little complicated…but she's not supposed to know that I'm here. She thinks Bentley and Murray kidnapped me and are holding me against my will, or something like that. Anyway, she landed ten minutes ago and I'm pretty sure she's comin' to check this place out!"

"So…you want us to hide from your girlfriend?" Crash asked again, not quite seeing the danger.

"Actually, I was wondering if we could go to Chicago _right now,"_ Sly suggested.

After everyone in the living room exchanged puzzled looks, Jeycko repeated, "Right-now, right-now?"

"Yes, right now!" Sly asserted, on the edge of desperation. "We need to be anywhere but here!"

Link looked over to Mario and casually asked, "Is there enough room at your residence for us to spend the night?"

Mario thought about it for a second. Nodding his head, he said, "Actually, I know the guy who owns the apartment building very well. Yoshi should let you guys borrow a few rooms. How 'bout it?"

Sly shouted, "That's great! Now can we go?"

Keira complained, "I haven't even packed yet…"

Sly began flailing his arms around as he said, "Then—then go pack! Hurry, go get everything you need! There's no time to lose!"

Much to the raccoon's dissatisfaction, the other heroes didn't move as quickly as he had wanted when they all sluggishly got up to retrieve packing essentials. Crash suddenly stopped moving towards his room, turned around to look at Sly, paused for a few seconds, scratched his chin, squinted a little, raised his eyebrows a couple of times—

"CRASH!" Sly yelled as loud as he could. "What are you _doing?"_

Relaxed and unbothered, Crash responded, "Oh, I was just wondering how many days we're gonna be gone. Don't know how many sets of clothes I should pack."

The others had halted their progress to their rooms as well, awaiting Sly's answer. Exasperated, Sly announced, "Guys, we'll worry about that later! Just get your…" Sly had to abruptly stop himself from swearing. "Just get your toothbrushes, and let's GO!"

Standing next to him, Jeycko remarked, "You're kinda bossy."

Soon, everyone had tried to enter the bathroom to retrieve their toiletries at once. This eventually led to Jak, Sora, Riku, Crunch, and Murray all getting stuck in the door. This caused Sly to insanely bang his head against the wall. After a quick countdown, they pushed forward and unstuck themselves, resulting in a dog pile on the bathroom floor.

Right before having aneurism, Sly took a deep breath and closed his eyes, telling himself repeatedly that a master thief could never be caught by his own girlfriend. After about five agonizing minutes of the other heroes claiming their toothbrushes, various hair products, body sprays, skin moisturizers, and shampoos (our heroes are terribly vain), they finally arrived in the living room, more or less ready to go.

Weilding his green n' yellow toothbrush proudly, Crash announced, "We're ready for takeoff, Mister Jeycko!"

"Good, now Sly's veins can stop bulging through his fur," Jeycko replied.

Suddenly, Aku Aku had a thought. Earlier, his premonition had warned him about the planet's upcoming demise. Only Crash could prevent this, but he still wasn't anywhere near as strong enough to face the battles ahead. One thing was for certain: one of these intense battles was awaiting Crash and the others in America. Aku Aku needed to continue training Crash—Crunch and Coco, too, of course—and the other heroes were honestly a big distraction.

"Wait, Jeykco!" Aku Aku interrupted the precursor's concentration.

"What-up, Aku?" Jeycko asked.

"I wish to stay here and train Crash, Crunch, and Coco a little more. I must make sure that they are ready for the upcoming battles."

Coco turned to Aku Aku and raised a question, "You want us to stay behind?"

Perturbed by this decision, Mario said, "Whoa, when I said ALL of you had to come, I meant—!"

"I know, Mario, I'll bring them to Chicago in a week's time," Aku explained.

Also a little troubled, Sly Cooper pointed out, "Um, Aku? Are you forgetting that Carmelita might be on her way here?"

"She isn't looking for us, right? We'll just answer a few questions, and she'll be on her way out."

Sly nodded his head. "Just don't do anything to make her shoot at you. She likes to shoot."

"Thanks for the advice, Slick," Crunch said dryly, clearly not looking forward to an investigation.

"Wait a minute, so we're not even going?" Crash complained. "What the heck did I even get packed for?"

Jeycko quickly got back to business, "We should get going, guys."

* * *

Carmelita's job has taken her to plenty of tropical locales, but none quite like this one. Wumpa Island harbored many dangerous creatures, ranging from the ground-shaking mammoth-like Titans to the stealthy feline predators that shoot Mojo projectiles from afar. Carmelita decided to avoid these relentless Titans by staying close to the island's edges. After ten minutes of hiking, the large tree-house finally came into view. Oddly, a very bright and brief flash ignited from the house's interior and quickly faded.

The inspector muttered to herself, "Looks like someone's home."

Walking up to the front door, she knocked politely, holstering her shock blaster. The door swung open to reveal a maroon colored bandicoot. He seemed to like body-building.

"We don't want any!" shouted the bandicoot in irritation.

Carmelita quickly clarified with her heavy Italian accent, "I'm not here to sell you anything." Flashing her badge, she stated her name, "Inspector Carmelita Montoya Fox. I recently investigated this island last week after I got intel that the people who kidnapped my partner might be here. May I come in?"

Crunch frowned and grunted at the same time, stepping aside to allow the officer to walk inside. Carmelita looked over to the living room to find two more bandicoots quietly sitting on the couch, both reading King James bibles. Coco looked up from her scripture and greeted kindly, "Oh, hey there, stranger! What brings you here?"

"Inspector Carmelita Fox. I have some questions for you all."

In a more than noticeably fake tone, Crash said, "Oh dear, has something occurred?"

"Yes. I understand that a turtle named Bentley worked with someone named Mar to win the recent Twisted Wipeout competition. This Mar person registered for the race using one of the alien kiosks that landed on this island. Do you know who and where he is?"

Standing up, Coco scanned the ceiling in feigned thought. "Hm…Bentley and Mar? Never heard of them."

Narrowing her eyes suspiciously, Carmelita doubted, "Are you sure that they and a few other people weren't here living with you last week?"

Coco explained, "Well, to be honest, we get a lot of visitors and let them spend the night here. That's why my friend Crunch is so grumpy all the time. They stay here because they need shelter from those wild Titans."

Carmelita then brought up, "Then might I ask where you three were the last time I checked this place out? This house was completely empty."

"Oh, we were just roaming around Wumpa City's Kazoo District," Coco answered. "It's really nice this time of the year."

"I see…" Carmelita replied, glancing around at the house's furniture. There was a bunch of untidy junk lying around, and the decorations were a bit odd. There was a strange, wooden witchdoctor mask attached to the wall. Carmelita asked uneasily, "So you guys are into tiki…?"

Crash answered, "Yeah, erm…it keeps the demons away."

While Carmelita was distracted, Crash nudged Coco in the side, reminding her of something. Coco nodded and said, "Inspector Fox, can I ask what you put in your hair? It's so pretty!"

For the first time, they saw Carmelita's expression brighten as she responded, "Oh, I just wash it with Pantene and keep it in curls at night."

"Really? You keep it in _such_ a beautiful blue, it makes me jealous!" Coco complimented.

"Don't be. I would _kill_ to have that bright blonde color!" Carmelita complimented back. _"Kill!"_

After a few more stressed syllables and compliments that were obviously lies, Carmelita said her thank-you's and goodbyes and was on her way out of the Bandicoot home. After shutting the door, Crash turned around and commented with a smirk, "You sure know how to talk to women, Coco."

"I'm gonna let that slide."

* * *

_While Crash, Coco, Crunch, and Aku Aku hold it down on Wumpa Island, the rest of our heroes will venture with Mario to Chicago, Illinois to meet his soon-to-be-wife and friends. Meanwhile, Isaac Bifford draws nearer and nearer to his destination, determined to cause as much havoc as possible—whatever it takes to draw out Crash Bandicoot._

_Next chapter, we return to Draksin's hunt for blood as he arrives in London for his second victim. She's been in quite a few movies, including remakes, and three videogames, including Kingdom Hearts. Oh, let's call this next chapter __**Beautiful Insanity**__, shall we?_


	82. Beautiful Insanity

_If you find abuse toward women questionable and inappropriate…I double-dog dare you to read this, then!_

**Chapter 82: Beautiful Insanity**

"Your name…Alice, was it?" Draksin asked the girl sitting on the edge of the bed before him. "I think I know another reason why the doctors call it a 'beautiful insanity'…"

The Dark One was referring to the raven-haired girl's attractiveness; he was sitting on the bedside table in front of her, just inches away from her face. His scarlet eyes deeply penetrated her cloudy jade ones, both of which seemed to be having trouble focusing on the pale-skinned man's face. Also, her head wobbled around as if she were stuck in some sort of stupor.

The girl wore a simple blue dress, and her black hair draped over her shoulders. Both she and Draksin were sitting across from each other in the gloomy hospital room of an asylum, and it was nearly nightfall outside. She ostensibly stared through Draksin with dark circles under her eyes; it could have been assumed that she was unsure of whether or not the dark lord was actually there in front of her. Her eyelids nearly fell closed.

Draksin propped a gloved finger under her chin to keep Alice from dozing off. "No dosing off on me, now."

Wearily, Alice asked in her British accent, "Who…are you?"

"Your savior and reaper, Alice. I'm here to end your suffering." Lightly, Draksin took her hand and stood them both up. He clasped his hands around her shoulders, staring into her eyes again as he said, "I've met another princess of heart, like you. She, however, wasn't possessed by her own madness."

Oddly, Draksin took one of her hands in his and raised his other hand to her back. For whatever reason, Alice did more or less of the same, limply holding Draksin's hand. They leisurely waltzed from side-to-side in a slow motion dance of sorts as the dark lord whispered to her, "I don't understand how a being whose heart is supposed to be completely devoid of darkness…can be living in an insane asylum. Your heart is clouded in mystery. I can't even tell if there really is any Light in there, princess."

"Princess…?" Alice repeated back in the middle of their waltz.

"Yes, you're one of them, remember?" Draksin quietly reminded. "Haven't you met Sora, Donald, and Goofy?"

"Sora…Donald…Goofy…" Alice repeated blankly.

"I know it's hard to forget those clowns. Listen, Alice…I'm going to make you apart of something much greater than you and me. We can change this dreary world into something much more beautiful. But I need your blood to nourish my power, and together we will make the world one big, happy wonderland."

They stopped dancing. For the first time, Alice looked up at Draksin with unaffected focus.

"This will probably hurt," Draksin said, suddenly baring elongated canines.

Snapping back to reality, Alice unhooked her hands from his and punched the lights out of Draksin's face with the gaping force of a wrecking ball. Immediately, Alice reached under her pillow for something.

Airborne, Draksin slammed into the wall across the white room, wobbly landing on his feet. Irately, he muttered under his breath, "Of course…"

Like lighting, Draksin grabbed the knife that had just been thrown at him without warning from the air, grasping it tightly by the black hilt and throwing it right back at Alice. She effortlessly caught it again and charged at Draksin like a red-sighted bull, wielding her Vorpal Blade ferocity. Draksin simply frowned at this, crossing his arms as he watched the girl charge at him. Alice made to slash the evil man in several different directions, but he kept swiveling and swerving his body away from the knife's path, all while keeping an intense glare and his arms crossed. Suddenly, Draksin heard a tearing noise.

He looked down to notice a rip in his gray undershirt, accompanied by an open wound. For a split second, he merely stared at his wound with a raised eyebrow. Next, he sent two fists crashing across her face, followed by a heavy punch to her stomach. Grabbing her by the throat, Draksin stated through rigid teeth, "I see you're no stranger to abuse!"

Alice made to knife Draksin again, but the Dark One wasn't having any of that. With her wrist in one hand and her throat in the other, Draksin squeezed his hands tightly until genuine fear was evident in her green eyes. Draksin smiled evilly when her eyes began to close. Soon, she stopped struggling to break free. That's when he let her go.

Before she fell to the floor, Draksin swiftly caught her. Alice was half-conscious and helpless in his arms. Draksin positioned the girl's head to efficiently expose every inch of her neck. Nonchalantly, he said, "I sure hope you've washed up recently. That first man I killed had…" Draksin shuddered. "…neck sweat."

As if recognizing something in the dark lord's eyes, Alice slowly uttered, "Sora…?"

"Not quite."

A few moments later, Draksin casually strolled out of the asylum room, wiping red residue from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. The open wound on his chest was healing over while the rip from his gray undershirt also sewed itself shut again.

* * *

_Alice is from an old and kinda creepy PC game, American McGee's Alice in Wonderland. Just recently, a pretty sequel came out, called Alice: Madness Returns. Both games feature a very dark and twisted version of good ol' Wonderland, which nearly made me wet myself from the wickedness. Trust me, look at some YouTube videos of those game's trailers and gameplay. It's mad, I say! Anyway, Alice's blonde-haired, blue-eyed counterpart also starred in Kingdom Hearts as one of the Princesses of Spades…er, Heart._


	83. Chi Town

**Chapter 83: Chi-Town**

Jak emotionlessly watched the city's skyline shining under the setting sun. This place was so much like Haven City with its perpetually moving cars and pedestrians. He was standing on the rooftop of Mario's apartment building, leaning his elbows against the concrete balcony that overlooked the streets of Chicago, Illinois. The others were scattered behind him, chatting it up while Mario was in the process of locking up the _Iron Toadstool._

With a beep-beep, Mario activated the aircraft's alarm mode with his keys. He turned around to say to Jeycko, "Hey, thanks again for goin' back to get my darlin', Jeycko. I can't believe I almost forgot about her."

Jeycko replied, "No problem, dude. Anytime. Listen, I've got to get back to the Twilight Realm, so I'll see you kids tomorrow!"

Goofy waved and said, "Bye, Jeycko!"

After the precursor departed from the rooftop in a quick flash of light, Ratchet walked up to Mario and asked with a taunting smirk, "So…you call your ship 'darling'?"

"Uh, yeah? What the heck's your problem?" Mario spat.

Not expecting such a negative reaction, Ratchet decided to shrink back and say, "Whoa, I didn't mean anything by it, man."

"Yeah, right! Can't ya tell she's clearly female?"

"Geez, I didn't know—"

"You callin' my baby ugly? You stinkin' son of a mother!" Just when Mario had Ratchet scared out of his wits, the plumber burst into laughter and said, "Just messin' with ya, kid! C'mon, lemme introduce you guys to Peaches!"

The heroes followed Mario through the apartment building's rooftop doorway, each carefully making their way down the steep stairwell until they reached the bottom where a locked door awaited them. After Mario unlocked it, he led them down a long hallway with apartment rooms on either side until they reached a door marked "319".

Unlocking the door, Mario burst forth, screaming, "Honey, I'm home!"

With all their heads squeezing through the doorway, the heroes could make out the back of a couch in what appeared to be a living room. The back of a young blonde woman's head was visible, as she was sitting on the couch and reading a magazine. At the sound of Mario's voice, she turned around and gave the middle-aged plumber the most wrathful of all glares. She stood up (she was a tall lady), and darted over to Mario, who was still standing at the threshold with open arms.

To describe Mario's fiancée, Peaches, in a few words, she was a city-girl. Her hair was poofed up from an insane amount of hairspray. Her makeup was proficiently applied to her face with a calm balance of blush and red lipstick. She wore a pair of black shorts and a pink sweater that read the words "Goomba's Club."

Anyway, Peaches impatiently tapped her foot on the floor, glaring holes into Mario…who still stood with open arms and a smile. Finally, Peaches yelled, "_Explain!"_

From outside the doorway, Daxter commented, "Ooh, you've got a red hot one, stud!"

Ignoring the ottsel, Peaches asked in an angry, fast-paced, Brooklyn accent, "Who in the holy-heaven are all these weird lookin' hoboes? Some cats you dragged in from the local meat market?"

Offended, Donald crossed his arms and sternly said, "Pleased to make your acquaintance."

Mario explained, "I had to help these guys out, sweetie. After I fixed their plumbing, which took longer than we expected, I had to help them win the Twisted Wipeout races so they could whack that Calypso lady."

"Well, did ya win any money?" Peaches asked.

Clearly afraid to answer this question, Mario scratched his head and mumbled, "No, not really…"

"WHAT?" Her voice shook the room. "Now how am I supposed to pay for that wedding dress? I told you, Mario, I ain't gettin' married in my Frankenstein's Bride Halloween costume between two dumpsters in a back alley. Nah-ah!"

Mario's only response was, "Kinda makes Vegas sound decent, doesn't it?"

"Ugh." Peaches grabbed her skull in frustration, not wanting to hear another word.

Mario turned around and desperately pled to the idle heroes, "C'mon, I'm dying here! Say somethin' to her!"

On cue, Keira welcomed herself inside the house and addressed the angry fiancée, "Hello, Miss Peaches…whatever your last name is, my name's Keira. We're really sorry for keeping your soon-to-be husband busy, but he really helped us out—a lot, and we also want to express our deepest thanks for him helping get the water running at the house we were previously staying in. Again, we're really sorry."

Giving Keira the stink-eye, Peaches retorted, "What's with your ears? Did you just drop in from a 'goblins and geeks' convention?"

"Wow…" Keira said, pursing her lips together to keep herself from losing it.

Scratching the back of his head sheepishly, Sora stated, "Maybe I should handle this…" He walked over to Mario's fiancée and said politely, "Since Mario did so much to help us out, like help win the race and escape from an evil psychopath who happens to be my dad, we all wanted to come down here with him and personally apologize if you were worried. I know what it's like worrying about people while they're away, so this is out of the kindness of our hearts."

"Yeah, what he said," Daxter added.

Mario cleared his throat and said, "So, er, sweetie, I was thinkin' about letting these kind folks stay here for dinner. Does that sound good to you?"

Peaches stared Mario down for about ten whole seconds. Then, she broke into a bright smile and shrieked, "Oh! I'd love it if they stayed for dinner! I could cook up some southern fried chicken, mac n' cheese, green beans, and blue-berry muffins. Does that sound nice to you folks?"

"Heck freakin' yeah!" Murray exclaimed, barging into the apartment.

"Mm, soul food!" Daxter chimed.

"It's grubbin' time," Ratchet announced.

A confused Link asked, "What is this 'mac n' cheese' she speaks of?"

"I promise you'll have a good time figuring it out," Riku replied with a grin.

Peaches suddenly looked embarrassed and asked, "Oh, how thoughtless of me! Is fried chicken okay with you animal people, too? 'Cuz I could make some veggie-burgers, if you—"

"Hey, it's cool," Sly cut off. "Circle of life, am I right?"

"Well then, come on in, make yourselves at home!" Peaches urged, walking off into the kitchen.

Walking in, Sly muttered to Mario, "Talk about a change in attitude."

"Yeah. She, uh, loves company," Mario told the raccoon. "It makes her feel, you know, less poor."

* * *

_Dinner time…_

In a lighting-quick fifteen minutes, everyone was seated at the rectangular table that Jak and Murray had helped widen with a centerpiece for extra space to sit in the dining room. Peaches had walked in from the kitchen with an incredibly wide platter that held everyone's meals on ceramic white plates.

At the sight of the plates, Mario complained, "Ah, Peaches, why ain't you using the paper plates?"

Peaches glared at Mario before saying, "We have company over, honey. I wanna use the good plates!"

Throwing his hands up in defeat (and probably fear), Mario said, "Alright, do whatever, then."

Setting the sixteen plates down, Peaches seated herself and smiled around at everyone at the table. "So, who wants to say grace?"

Murray muttered within the span of two seconds, "Father-we-thank-you-for-this-blessed-food-in-your-name-amen. Let's eat!"

Everyone graciously attacked their meal with greedy hands. Everyone except for Clank, that is. The little robot was sitting on two phone books and indifferently watching everyone consume their meals. He looked down at his full plate and then turned to Peaches and said, "Excuse me, Miss Peaches, but I do not think you remember my saying that I don't require food."

"Nonsense," she responded. "Of course you need to eat! Look at you—you're smaller than a baby Chihuahua!"

"Yes, but…I'm a robot."

"Don't worry, little buddy," said Murray sitting next to him. "I'll take care of your people-food for ya!"

Taking Clank's plate and dumping its contents onto his already half-empty plate, Murray happily continued to chow down. Sitting on the other side of Murray, Donald glared at his plate. He should've gotten the veggie-burger. This was the second time everyone just sat around, senselessly munching his fallen, featherless friends right in front of his face. It was infuriating!

Wait a minute. Donald sniffed his plate. It didn't smell too bad. Actually, the chicken smelled sinfully good. His stomach was rumbling. Darting his eyes at everyone, he made sure no one was watching when he picked up a drumstick. Opening his mouth, Donald—

"Oh, my God…" said a perplexed Jak. He seemed to be the first one to notice the foul act Donald was about to commit—but definitely not the only one. Everyone else at the table, including Mario and Peaches, was staring at Donald with wide eyes. The drumstick was levitating in the duck mage's open mouth, nearly about to be chewed.

Ratchet jeered, "Dude, that's sick!"

"Cannibal, if I ever seen one!" Mario added.

Dropping the chicken leg back on the table, Donald crossed his arms angrily and snapped, "You guys can all go—!"

"—So," Bentley interrupted changing the subject, "this food is really great, Miss Peaches! How in the world were you able to cook it so fast?"

"Oh, I've just had a lot of practice working in the kitchen," Peaches replied with a pleasant smile.

"Does that mean you're a chef?" Bentley inquired.

"No, but I want to be. Mario didn't tell you my line of work? That shows how much he talks about me."

From across the table, Mario rolled his eyes and said, "Sorry, dear. My fiancée works at the local Goomba's Club as, what she likes to call, an exotic dancer."

A silent pause fell between every hero at the table until Sly Cooper asked, "Isn't that a fancy phrase for 'stripper'?"

Riku dropped his fork on the plate. Sora swallowed his soda a little too fast and wound up coughing. Jak was in mid-bite of his macaroni and cheese when his face froze. Ratchet bluntly asked, "You're getting married to a stripper?"

Link sat there in his seat with a slightly confused smile. "Okay, someone's gonna have to explain what that is."

"Ask my dad," Kairi mumbled to him, remembering something.

Daxter added, "And she cooks and cleans! Mario, you naughty ottsel!"

Riku suddenly exclaimed, "Oh, so that's what that thing is over there!" Riku was pointing to a silver pole in the corner of the adjacent living room. It was directly connected to the ceiling and the floor. When everyone else at the table observed the pole, Riku remarked, "Not being able to figure out what that is has been killing me ever since we got here!"

Peaches replied casually, "Yeah, I use it for practice on weekends. Someday, though, I'll quit that job and open up a restaurant where I'll be the head chef! I'll call it the Food Kingdom!"

Across the table, Kairi felt a sharp pang in her heart as she sat staring at her food. She seemed to be preoccupied with heavy thoughts. Sitting next to her, Sora was the first to notice her odd behavior.

"Aren't ya hungry?" Sora asked, forking some green beans.

"I don't know why, but just now I started feeling…really sad," Kairi explained, looking even more downcast.

"Is it someone you're thinking about?" Sora asked.

"No…I just…I don't know." (1)

Peaches also noticed Kairi's lack of eating. She asked, "Aw, you don't look too well, hon. You feelin' sick?"

Kairi answered, "Yeah, a little. Hey, Murray, you can have my plate if you want. I'll be excused."

Kairi had gotten up from the table and left everyone more or less concerned. She walked through the small living room and out the patio door, where she stepped out onto the apartment's single balcony. Mario's apartment was high up on the fourth floor. The princess gazed into the darkening sky.

"Something you need to talk about?" said a voice behind her.

Link had joined her on the balcony, casually looking down at all the slow-moving cars and pedestrians. Kairi turned to him and asked, "You're done eating?"

"Yeah, that mac n' cheese was…really good," Link replied with a satisfied smile. Then he let out a clearly audible burp, which Kairi couldn't resist giggling at. Link corrected, "Really, really good."

"Obviously."

"So, are you not feeling alright?"

"I just had this weird feeling in the middle of dinner. Like, a part of me just faded away."

"That sounds awful," Link said empathetically. Placing a hand on her shoulder, he added, "I hope you feel better soon." And then once more, Link let out vicious belch.

"That's so flattering, Link," Kairi sarcastically remarked.

Patting his stomach, he sheepishly smiled and said, "I must have had too much of that fizzy drink. Oh, gosh…here comes one more…" _Burp._ "Um…that was for you, milady."

Laughing again, Kairi revoked, "No, thanks."

From the dining room, Sora could see them laughing on the balcony from where he sat. He had finished eating a while ago, but he remained seated, watching the pair converse with a crestfallen expression. He should be the one talking to her, cheering her up. He started to sigh heavily, until a certain orange ottsel popped up next to him and blurted, "He wears green. Like a snake in the jungle. And that's exactly what he is."

"What d'ya mean?" Sora asked.

"I consider it the highest dishonor of the man-code to snake someone else's girlfriend," Daxter explained. "And that's what Link is doin'. He's snaking your lady. _Snaking_ her."

"Can you stop saying 'snaking'! It sounds weird." Sora narrowed his eyes at the Hylian boy talking to the redheaded girl outside of the apartment, quite certain that Link was the bane of his existence. Then he looked at Kairi, feeling burning emotions of desire and jealousy. Sora looked back at Daxter, giving him one heck of a scowl before saying, "And she's not my lady, okay?"

Seeing the rage behind Sora's eyes, Daxter quickly backed off. "Easy. Only tryin' to help. Don't go all evil on me like your pops did back in that mountain cave! My tail's still sore from that!"

Despite wishing he hadn't bluntly brought up the incident at the mountain cave, Sora still apologized, "Sorry, Daxter. So, what should I do?"

"C'mon, man! Tell 'er how ya feel! It's just that simple," said Daxter.

"Sure it is."

"Well, you could sit here and let Green Gills take your—er, take Kairi, or you could act. Just remember that I'm on your side, one hundred percent."

"Thanks, Daxter."

"Yeah, 'cuz that Link is bein' a real snake. Never hit on another man's girl!" Just then, Keira had finished eating her dinner. She stood up and stretched her arms, which somehow provoked Daxter to shout, _"Ah-hooga!_ Lookin' sexy, Keira!" He turned his attention back to a perplexed Sora, and concluded, "You'll survive. I promise!"

* * *

"Why do you need me again?" Link asked Mario as they walked down the stairs.

"Because…out of dat whole group of weirdoes upstairs, you're the looniest guy I know. I need to make sure Yoshi believes me when I tell 'em that I've got about fourteen freaks of nature that need rooms to sleep in."

They rounded a corner of the hall and came into the apartment's dimly lit, tobacco smoke-filled lobby. In the middle of the lobby, a short, green-skinned lizard was sitting at a round table playing poker. This reptilian anthropoid was smoking a pipe and had a long mustache/beard combo, making him look somewhat Asian in appearance. As for his apparel, he simply wore a black vest (and no pants). Also playing at the table was a little guy with a humongous, red-spotted mushroom cap sitting atop his head. This little man was also smoking a cigar and had on a blue vest and white pants. Both of the poker players glanced at Mario and unanimously erupted in salutations.

"Mario! Long time, no see!" the green one, named Yoshi, yelled across the room in a Japanese dialect.

"Aye, where ya been all dis time, me breda?" the one with the mushroom-head greeted in a thick Jamaican accent.

Mario grinned and replied, "Ah, you know, gettin' that bread, makin' that dough. What've you two mooks been up to, ah?"

"Same ting you seen here!" said the short mushroom man.

The green lizard-dinosaur guy suddenly interrupted, "Ya, ya—you got my rent money, Mario?"

Looking uncomfortable, Mario countered, "Hey, easy there, Yoshi. I just got home, for Pete's sakes!"

Raising a mocking eyebrow, Yoshi said, "Ya? You say you just getting home today. I ask for rent tomorrow, you say you and fiancée are too busy arguing. I ask for rent the next day, you and fiancée leave early for work. The next day, I come up to your room, but I see you and fiancée sneaking out window! It's the same thing every week!" Taking a moment to breathe, he then rudely sputtered, "And who da heck is that?"

Yoshi was referring to the idly standing Hylian, who seemed to be having trouble breathing in the smoky lobby. Mario answered for him, "This is my, er, good friend, Link."

"Why he look so weird?" Yoshi asked, eyeballing the warrior.

"Oh, you know, he's here from a different world to defeat evil overlords and such," Mario answered.

"So he's Glenn Beck," the Jamaican mushroom man commented.

Mario addressed the lizard man, "Now listen, Yoshi, I've got about thirteen other good friends up in my room right now, and they really need temporary rooms to crash in…"

"Oh, you want to rent extra rooms? PAY RENT, FIRST!" Yoshi bellowed angrily.

"Yoshi, I'm beggin' ya, man! I'll have your rent by tomorrow mornin'—and I won't sneak out! Just give these friends of mine a few rooms to sleep in! I'll pay for their rooms, I promise!"

Sighing, Yoshi considered this skeptically. "How long they need to stay?"

"A week, tops."

"And you have my rent money by tomorrow morning?"

"Of course I will, ol' buddy, ol' pal!"

Crossing his arms, Yoshi declared, "Fine, they can stay." Standing up from the poker table, Yoshi walked over to a shelf on the wall and opened a drawer, retrieving three keys from it. Walking over to Mario, he handed him the keys and said, "They can have those three empty rooms on the fourth floor with you. You betta have my money tomorrow, or I throw your friends out!"

"No prob, Yosh!" Mario gave a thumbs-up, along with a toothy smile. "Later, Toad!"

"Just stay outta trouble you crazy goomba," Toad replied with a grin.

Walking back up the stairs, Link turned to Mario and asked, "Do you even have his money?"

Mario smirked and said, "'Course I do. I've had it sittin' in my pocket for six months now. I just like to mess with Yoshi."

* * *

_Isaac is 1,000 miles from Chicago…_

Draksin and Isaac Bifford were walking along the side of a long and dark highway in the middle of the night. They walked in the grass next to the road to avoid passing cars. Draksin had his hood pulled up as he spoke to Isaac, "And remember, don't do anything to call serious attention to yourself until you reach Chicago. I don't want the government tracking you until you're in the center of the nation. That means to lay low and act like a regular vagabond by day and to only fly at night. Got it?"

"Yes, master. Understood," Isaac replied.

Draksin looked at him with orange eyes. "I'm going to go find my last victim. It's always so hard to choose…"

Out of the blue, Isaac inquired, "What would happen to you if you didn't…you know, drink people's blood every month?"

"Well, I haven't had the pleasure of figuring it out, but I guess that I would wither away and die just like any other starving human."

"Interesting."

"I'll check back with you in a few days, Isaac. See ya…" Draksin vanished in a cloud of mist.

Alone, Isaac removed his sunglasses from his jacket pocket and put them on. He continued walking forward with his head low and his hands rooted in his pockets. His dreadlocks blew in the breeze behind him, much like the tail of his long and gray coat. He set his mind to his ultimate objective. Lowly, he muttered to himself, "You'd better be nothing less than ready to die, Crash."

* * *

_1) That pained feeling Kairi was experiencing is being shared by Aurora, Belle, Cinderella, Jasmine, and Snow White. They mourn for their fallen sister, Alice…Dang, I'm a stinker! Moving on…_

_Captain America, hit those bios!_

**Cap:** Sir, yes sir! For freedom!

Peaches

**Age:** 28  
**Gender:** Female  
**Species:** Human

The loving fiancée of Mario, Peaches is the sunshine of his life. Ever since Mario rescued her from the clutches of a nasty gang leader named Bowser, they've been head-over-heels for each other. Not too recently, Peaches accepted Mario's marriage proposal and is currently waiting for the big day to come. She can have major issues with her attitude when things don't go quite the way she wants them to. She does love to feel extra privileged, evident from her enthusiasm to cook for dinner guests. Notably, she works as a respectfully paid exotic dancer at the Goomba's Club. One day, she hopes to open up her own restaurant called the "Food Kingdom." Peaches—Princess Peach, I should say, first starred as the damsel in distress in _Super Mario Bros__., 1985._

Yoshi

**Age:** It's so hard to tell…  
**Gender:** Male  
**Species:** Yoshi Dinosaur

A loyal friend to Mario and Luigi, Yoshi's been around for a long time, now. He's a little dinosaur guy who hails from the ancient Yoshi island, where there are plenty of other little lizard people running around. On more than one occasion, Yoshi has helped and rescued Mario from certain death against the hands of Bowser and his Koopa Gang. Mario still has yet to repay Yoshi…his rent money that is. Now a cranky landlord, he thinks it to be a miracle if he ever gets his money paid on time. Yoshi first appeared in _Super Mario World__, 1991._

Toad

**Age:** 25  
**Gender:** Male  
**Species:** Toadstool

To be honest, it took Mr. Hybrid along time to figure out what a toadstool was. Yeah, he thought the race of Toads were …you know, toads. Toad is peach-colored and adorably cute, better known as a mushroom-man. Anyway, believe it or not, this little Jamaican fungus is a bodyguard at the local Goomba's Club where Peaches works. Toad is a loyal and easygoing friend to her and Mario. Toad first appeared in _Super Mario Bros__., 1985._

**Captain America:** Even I knew about the toadstool thing, you sorry excuse for a soldier.

_Ow, my pride. So on the next chapter…well, just go on and read it!_


	84. Outmanned

**Chapter 84: Outmanned**

_Destiny Islands, 10:22 p.m.…_

Draksin slowly crept into Mara's small, dark bedroom. Aside from a bed and furniture, the room was empty. Draksin took this as an opportunity to go through the velvet purse sitting on the bedside table. Picking it up, Draksin pulled out a phone, a pack of gum, a Fiber One bar, and a wallet. Finding no interest in the first three things, Draksin opened the wallet and observed the Destiny Island's ID card. There she was, just like he remembered seventeen years ago, except more mature. He slid open other compartments of the little leather wallet and out came five pictures. Holding them in his hand, he observed the first one with his orange, bottomless eyes.

It was a snapshot of a toddler-sized Sora blowing out four birthday candles from a cake. He was sitting on some phonebooks at the house's kitchen table. The next picture showed a ten or twelve-year-old Sora after he had won a Blitzball game with his friends. He had his arm around that silver-haired friend of his. Both boys seemed content judging by their wide smiles. The next picture was a formal shot of a fourteen-year-old Sora standing side by side with Mara. Such naïveté…

The last two shots were of Sora's closest friends, Riku and Kairi. The one with Riku showed the boy crossing his arms and smirking at the camera in the front yard. The other one with Kairi showed her sitting at the kitchen with a bright smile. Draksin scoffed and thought to himself, _It's like they're the kids she had never had. Or always wanted…_

Exiting the little room, Draksin looked to the left and spotted the house's front door was wide open. He looked through it and saw a small-framed woman leaning on the banister of her front porch. Facing away from the dark lord, she was gazing up at the dark, star-studded sky, most likely thinking about her adventuring son, or some other garbage like that.

_Perfect,_ Draksin thought to himself. _Now to end my hunger…_

Wait. Something was plaguing his mind. He kept thinking about other things, very distracting things. Trying hard to focus on the task at hand, Draksin silently walked forward, literally fighting himself to take each step. Why couldn't he think straight? Stupid images of flowers in sunny meadows, sunsets over the ocean, and singing birds kept entering his mind.

Grabbing his head in frustration, he involuntarily began to think of cute little puppies, heart-shaped chocolates, and newborn babies. The way those puppies would wag their tails to get your attention, the addictive taste of chocolate, and just how precious little babies were when they opened their eyes and smiled at you…

It was torture! Draksin nearly shouted and knocked over a nearby lamp, but he successfully managed to keep it all inside. How could he let such foul images enter his mind? It's almost as if some unknown source of Light had somehow pierced his dark heart. But that was impossible! The Light had been torn from his soul a long time ago. Unless…

"Of course…" Draksin lowly muttered, realizing something. These bright thoughts were definitely coming from somewhere. That princess—her blood must be reacting with his dark being. So Alice really did have a heart of pure light…that witch.

Glancing at the standing woman fifteen feet away (who still wasn't aware of the dark lord's presence), Draksin desperately thought to himself before teleporting, _Gotta…retreat._

* * *

_Isaac Bifford is 822 miles from Chicago…_

Early the next morning, Jak had gotten up from the apartment room across the hall to train himself in Mario's sunlit living room. Being without a gun meant that he had to get back into tip-top fighting condition. Along with removing his shirt, Jak had wrapped white tape around both of his forearms and knuckles to train with. For the past hour and a half, Jak had been punching and kicking various locations of Peaches' exotic dancing pole, with her permission, of course.

With each concentrated strike of his fist, the pole made a clanging noise. Jak practiced all sorts of offensive fighting techniques, obviously trying to make up for his lost firearm. He had relied on that thing for too much. Jak's technique had gotten a bit sloppy, but no more. He sure would miss pulling that trigger, though…

After giving the pole a threateningly high kick, Jak decided to take a quick break. Just then, Peaches had walked in the room with a cold glass of water for Jak. Taking the glass, Jak thanked impassively, "Thanks, for letting me use your pole."

"Gotta be honest," Peaches began, "I thought ya meant something else when you asked if you could practice on my dance pole, but your welcome anyway, hon!"

Riku and Kairi had both been sitting on the living room's couch and watching Jak beat the living heck out of that pole for the past ten minutes. Riku commented nonchalantly, "I'm exhausted just watching the guy."

Kairi added, "Yeah, me too—done already, Jak?"

"Takin' a break," Jak retorted, grabbing a random towel, tossing it over his head, and leaving the apartment room.

Like lighting, Riku gave the girl sitting next to him a quick smirk before looking up at the ceiling. Kairi noticed this and asked, "What?"

"Oh, nothin'…" Riku replied as he smirked off in another direction. Receiving a sharp jab in the shoulder from Kairi, Riku suddenly changed the subject and asked, "So, uh, Peaches? Whose turn is it to have a go on the pole? Mine? Yours?"

Oblivious to Riku's shenanigans, Peaches responded, "Oh, I don't need any more practice. Mario says my poise is top-notch!"

"Sure, he does…" Riku said with a laugh. "But you know what they say, practice makes per—"

"_Riku," _Kairi chastised.

"Sorry…" the boy immediately mumbled. Suddenly, he brought up, "Speaking of poles—Kairi, doesn't your dad think you're a—"

Receiving a full-on punch to the stomach, Riku finally learned his place. Meanwhile, two certain blue-skinned people walked inside the apartment room, startling Peaches a great deal. Mario's fiancée shrieked, "Oh, my! Are you two strangers lost?"

The two Precursors were Orphco and Glen. They stared straight through Peaches, instead greeting Riku and Kairi. Orphco was the first to greet them, "Good morning to the both of you!"

"Howzit going, guys?" Glen asked. "Would you believe that this is the first apartment room we checked in this whole building? Are we lucky, or what?"

Peaches turned to the Keybladers and asked, "Who in the heck are these people?"

"They're good friends of ours," Riku answered. "They brought us here."

Orphco addressed the perturbed woman standing in front of him, "Ah, you must be Peaches, Mario's fiancée. Pleased to meet you!"

Shaking hands with the blue man, Peaches hesitantly replied, "Thanks, I guess…"

"Good news, everyone!" Glen informed. "We were checking the local news stations around the country, and all they're talking about is the psycho wolfman on the loose!"

"Some citizens are reporting that they've seen him crossing the Florida state border line," Orphco said. "You might want to get everyone in here to hear about this."

They did just that. Riku and Kairi made sure to thoroughly wake everyone up and gather them in Mario's apartment. Situating themselves around the precursors, the heroes listened to their decree:

"Isaac Bifford is all but beaten at this point," Orphco explained. "We can find him and kill him once and for all."

"Sounds like a plan," Jak stated.

"Do you think we're ready for him?" Sora asked.

Bentley shrugged and said, "It's either now or never."

Murray commented, "I guess we're gonna start this party without Crash and the others."

Mario uncrossed his arms and declared, "I'm joining the party, too."

Peaches immediately objected, "What? You can't leave!"

"Yeah, this could be dangerous, Mario," Link agreed.

Mario gave Link a flat, patronizing look. "Um…newsflash! I kicked your sorry butt back in London. And you had a sword!"

Link crossed his arms and glared off to the side. "You sure like to keep mentioning that, don't you?"

Grinning pompously, Mario replied much to Link's chagrin, "Well, it _was_ the beat-down of the century…"

"So, are you coming or not?" Jak asked impatiently.

"I'm in."

Peaches interjected, "Fine! But don't die against that wolfman just to get out of our marriage!"

Rolling his eyes, Mario sighed in annoyance and said, "I ain't gonna die…"

"Then repeat it back to me!" Peaches demanded.

"Oh, my God…"

"I said repeat it!"

_"I ain't gonna die on you just to get out of our marriage_—God!" Mario exclaimed. Then, suddenly calming down, he threw in, "Love ya, babe."

Blowing a kiss, Peaches said, "Love ya, too, sweetie!"

"Aw, that's so sweet!" Kairi stated earnestly.

Mario retorted, "Yeah, it's a friggin' fairytale. Let's get going already."

* * *

Isaac Bifford was still taking his trek across the state borderline between Florida and Atlanta, still walking alongside the car-infested road. For seemingly no reason at all, he was angrily staring at the half-eaten Fiber One bar in his hand. Chewing the granola, he declared furiously, "They lie! There can't be any fiber in this!"

Suddenly, that Indian dude Ajay Mehta appeared next to Isaac, strolling at his side and holding a plate full of granola bars. He told Isaac, "Actually, there is! With just one serving—"

"Take back your bar of lies!" Isaac exclaimed before gorilla slapping the guy into moving traffic. He carelessly threw the half-eaten bar over his shoulder, muttering to himself, "I could taste the falseness in every bite…"

A voice from behind him boldly (and stupidly) suggested, "Then give us a taste!"

Doing a quick one-eighty, Isaac nearly bucked in surprise from the plethoric amount of random people standing in front of him. There were elfin people, anthropoid-animals, kids with funny-looking swords, a weasel-thing, a tiny robot, and…a short man in a plumber's uniform. How long had this freak show been following him?

Keira yelled at Daxter, "'Give us a taste'? We don't want him eating us, stupid!"

From Jak's shoulder, Daxter slapped himself in the forehead. "Oh, very true…"

Link valiantly drew his sword and pointed it at the hairy hulk of a man like an accusing finger. "We've come to end your evil-doing, foul fiend!"

Still reeling from the fact that they appeared from nowhere, Isaac asked, "Just _what_ are you all supposed to be?"

"Is it that hard to grasp?" The Murray challenged in his boxing stance. "We are the proud heroes of devastation, and this is your day of reckoning!"

"Heroes?" Isaac repeated skeptically.

"Yeah, you might've heard about precursors slinging us around to wipe out lowlifes like you!" Sora barked, aiming his Keyblade at Isaac threateningly.

Daxter added, "That's right, dreadlocks! We're here to kick your sorry butt!"

Catching up to speed, Isaac crossed his arms and stated, "So, you're the heroes that the precursors have sent to destroy us?" Suddenly looking angrier, Isaac asked, "Then which one of you is Crash Bandicoot?"

Brimming with intensity, Jak answered, "Sorry, but he's sitting this one out. Your fight's with us."

Isaac replied, "Sorry—can't accept that. After I'm done beating all of you today, it would be most wise of you all to bring the one I really want to fight the next time we meet."

Daxter whispered to Jak, "Hey, it sounds like he'll let us live!"

Ignoring the ottsel, Jak retorted to Isaac, "There won't be a next time!"

"Just because I'm outnumbered doesn't mean I'm outmanned," Isaac replied simply. "If all of you want to fight, then follow me into the forest where no one can see us." At that, the wolfman turned and walked into the nearby forest surrounding the roads. This act left many of the heroes feeling clueless.

Mario asked, "Do we follow him?"

Link shrugged and said, "Sure, why not…"

After the heroes had followed Isaac deep enough into the forest where a canopy of trees hung over them, the wolfman stopped abruptly and quickly spun around to face them all, his dreadlocks wavering from the sudden movement. Getting into a proper fighting stance (that almost seemed reminiscent of Akuma's stance), Isaac announced to everyone, "Now that we're hidden, let's get this over with!"

"No time like the present!" Donald Duck yelled, charging forward with staff in-hand as everyone else did the same behind him.

Isaac swiftly grabbed the staff and chucked it over his shoulder, the duck mage flying with it until he slammed headfirst into a tree. Next, Isaac sidestepped a Keyblade slash from Kairi and roundhouse kicked her to the ground. Isaac jumped up to avoid a horizontal slash of Link's Master Sword and simultaneously landed a barefooted kick into Goofy's nose that sent the royal captain of knights flopping on his back. After landing on the ground again, he grabbed Link by the collar planted his fist in the Hylian's stomach and cast him aside. Next, the beastly wolfman snatched the Keyblade from Riku's attacking hand and wrenched it away from him, punching him hard in the ribs and elbowing an approaching Mario in the mouth from behind. As the Way to the Dawn disappeared from Isaac's hand, he swung his foot like a mini-hurricane across Riku's face, sending the silver-haired warrior tumbling across the grassy ground. Turning around, Isaac grabbed Mario by the arm and deftly threw him into Riku, who was already preparing to stand up again. Isaac turned his head to see two glowing orbs of light rocketing straight for him; holding out both hands, he skillfully caught the two Yellow Eco balls and bounced them back at Keira, who barely had time to duck and cover, thus suffering from the explosion that sent her careening into a tree. On reflex, Isaac stopped and mentally kicked himself for allowing such brutality to happen to the young woman, but he soon reminded himself that he needed to appear ruthless in front of these "heroes."

Sensing an impending fist from Murray in his peripheral vision, Isaac intercepted it and high-kicked him in the chest. Turning around, Isaac kicked a wrench-wielding Ratchet harshly in the face, making the Lombax fall backward onto Clank. Grabbing Ratchet by the ankle, he hurled the Dynamic Duo into the quickly approaching Link. Turning BACK around, Isaac punched a persistent Murray across the face twice, leaving stars to revolve around his head. Doing another one-eighty, Isaac jumped and air-roundhouse kicked an approaching Sora right in the jawbone. As Sora tumbled to the ground, Mario had returned to jump and throw a daring kick at the wolfman, who unfortunately grabbed him by the ankle and slammed him face-first into the ground. A muffled curse could barely be heard from Mario, whose face was half buried.

Tired of being repeatedly countered, The Murray then tried another tactic; he charged and attempted to tackle Isaac from behind. Jumping on the wolfman's back, Murray was instantly surprised to see that Isaac was still standing tall with the hippo's weight thunderstruck over him. Next, Murray found himself face-first in the ground next to Mario after Isaac had maneuvered and flipped him over. Instinctively, Isaac threw back his elbow into an approaching raccoon's stomach and then reeled his fist up into Sly Cooper's face, stunning him greatly. Turning around, Isaac fed the Cooper four knuckles to the skull that sent him skidding to the ground. Hearing a whirring noise, Isaac turned around to catch a spinning shield flying straight for his head and quickly threw it back at Goofy, who screamed and ducked. The lethal shield carved right through a tree behind the frightened knight. After a few unlucky snaps, the bulky timber fell over and comically slammed onto Goofy's head, knocking the royal captain out.

Meanwhile, Jak had been quietly observing the battle at hand, soon figuring out the wolfman's strategy. Isaac was all about countering and parrying the other heroes' moves with short brutal combos. Jak was going to change that.

Daxter complained in Jak's ear, "C'mon, Jak! We're missing some of the action!"

Jak nodded and ran forward. Just as Sly Cooper was about to stand up for more, Jak ran past him, shouting, "Back off—I'm taking him!"

Jak leapt forward and threw a fist at Isaac, who easily blocked it with his forearm and sent a kick Jak's way. Seeing an opportunity, Jak adeptly caught the wolfman's foot mid-kick in a tight hold. Next, Jak brutally kicked the underside of Isaac's thigh, causing a grunt of irritation to come from the furry foe. Letting go of Isaac's foot, Jak sent a powerful punch into his jawbone, and then another.

Annoyed, Isaac blocked the next punch from Jak and socked the blonde-haired hero hard enough to make him skid backwards across the ground. Just then, Sora and Riku charged at Isaac on either side of the foe, both preparing to horizontally cut the wolfman in half. Ducking down to avoid both strikes, Isaac simultaneously swept his leg under both Keybladers in a swift three-sixty spin. While both heroes were airborne, Isaac made sure to grab both of them by their legs and hurl them in different directions.

While Riku barely missed a tree, Sora collided into an approaching Jak. Before knowing where he was, Sora was brusquely pushed off of Jak's body by Jak himself, who angrily scolded, "Watch it, kid!"

"It's not my fault!" Sora retaliated in a frustrated tone.

Jak stood up, leaving a flattened Daxter on the ground behind him, and charged after Isaac with Sora close behind him. Jak swung his fist at the fiendish wolfman, who unexpectedly weaved around it and jabbed Jak square in the mouth. Next, Isaac adeptly caught the swinging Ultima Weapon from Sora, raised it up high, and callously kicked the boy in the stomach.

Isaac then took it upon himself to plant another painful jab in Jak's stomach. While the blonde hero was bent over in agony, Isaac flipped himself over Jak's back, landing on the ground behind him, and then slugging an approaching Murray across the jaw. Flipping over Jak's back once more (which also greatly confused the long-eared man), Isaac held up his forearms to successfully block two vertical slashes from Sora's and Link's weapons. Both the Keyblader and Hylian stared in astonishment as their weapons failed to even pierce the wolfman's skin.

They stared for about two seconds before Isaac clasped a hand around both of their heads and banged them together like two boulders. As Link and Sora fell to the ground, they saw nothing but stars.

"Oy, that hurt…" Link muttered, eyes spinning.

"Good grief…" Sora complained, also in a world of pain.

Just then, Jak wised up to his surroundings and turned around to face Isaac. After Jak's ensuing right hook was blocked by the wolfman, the two combatants began to exchange blows like two hateful opponents in a boxing match, both receiving some rather merciless punches. However, the only one who seemed to be receiving genuine damage from the exchange of punches was Jak, who was evidently slowing down. Bleeding from the mouth, Jak took another fist that sounded extremely muffled to him. The next punch knocked him down to the grassy ground.

Suddenly, Isaac received a bright blast of energy to his shoulder. Scrunching his face in anguish, Isaac looked over to spot Keira running circles around him, blasting more potshots at him. The wolfman ducked to avoid them and swiftly tripped her over, catching her by the collar and flinging her across the ground.

Instinctively, Isaac heard someone approaching from behind and quickly whirled around to bring the back of his fist into their face. Immediately, he regretted seeing that it was Kairi lying on the ground in pain, holding the spot on her face. The pitiful sight of her made him wish he had just shoved her away, or at least softened the hit.

Just then, Sora was dizzily pacing toward Isaac with Keyblade in-hand. Still hazy from his head-to-head contact with Link, Sora shouted at the fiendish wolfman, "You…keep away from her!"

Sora dared to charge at Isaac, but wound up falling into him due to his extreme dizziness. Isaac caught the boy around the neck with his left hand, coldly dropping him to the ground shortly afterward.

"Hey, hairy!" said a voice behind him.

Isaac steadily turned around to observe…something he didn't quite see everyday. Bentley the turtle was in a six and a half foot tall mech-suit, nearly standing at Isaac's height. This suit of mechanized armor had two robot legs and a pair of mechanical arms and hands. Bentley was manning the suit's controls in the middle of the body, protected by nothing but a grated set of bars. Isaac simply stared at the turtle in his mech-suit, lowly uttering, "What in the…?"

"My newest invention!" Bentley proudly proclaimed. "My wheelchair transforms into a mech-suit! Of course, it takes two keys to initiate, and then it takes about six and half minutes to warm up, plus another three minutes to actually transform, but it kicks a substantial amount of bad-guy butt!"

Silently getting back into his fighting stance, Isaac gestured for Bentley to come get some. Bentley and his mech-suit charged forth, mechanically driving both of its fists into the wolfman's guarding forearms. Isaac's feet slid back through the dirt from the mech-suit's great force. Isaac quickly countered with a kick that would've hit Bentley's control spot, but the mech-suit guarded with both of it arms, effectively absorbing Isaac's attack. Bentley then tried to throw a heavy kick, but Isaac made sure to catch it by its metallic ankle and fiercely plant his elbow into its metal shin, greatly denting the mech suit's leg.

"Curses!" Bentley…um, cursed.

Bentley and his mech-suit began to unleash a flurry of punches that shook Isaac to the core as he received one after the other on his protecting forearms. Isaac then growled an animalistic roar, followed by delivering a swift kick to Bentley's control spot, of which the brainy turtle successfully guarded against. Once again, a metal fist collided into Isaac's forearms, and then another, followed by one more. Pestered with this turtle beyond belief, Isaac stopped guarding and adeptly caught the mech-suit's fists in both of his hands. Much to Bentley's displeasure, Isaac squeezed those metal hands with enough force to crush them like aluminum cans. Much MORE to Bentley's displeasure, Isaac yanked both metal hands until they tore off of the mech-suit's arms, sparking bolts of electricity. Having had enough, Isaac dropped the useless hands and vaulted backwards, using all of his strength to pound the ground with both of his fists. The ensuing tremor caused the mech-suit's legs to buckle, the opportunity of which Isaac used to leg-sweep Bentley. With a scream, Bentley and his mech-suit toppled backward into the ground. Next, Isaac took a firm hold on one of the mech-suit's legs, picked it up, and began swinging it around in circles. Slow at first, Isaac was swinging the turtle and his new invention around until he relinquished his grip, allowing Bentley to crash into a tree.

Before Isaac knew it, Murray was challenging him again, ready for round…what, like twenty? The eager hippopotamus lunged forward and swung his fist into the side of Isaac's head. Momentarily dazed, Isaac foresaw Murray's next attack and quickly ducked to avoid the left hook. Like lightning, Isaac raised himself up again and delivered a fierce uppercut to Murray's nose. After landing on his back, Murray promptly stood up again.

Going on the offensive, Isaac dashed forward and dropkicked Murray in his pink belly. For a second, Murray just stood there and absorbed the attack while a mildly confused Isaac floated in midair with his foot deeply immersed in the hippo's gut. Murray growled tensely under his breath, as if concentrating on bouncing the wolfman in the opposite direction. Before that could happen, however, Isaac brought his other foot across Murray's face, knocking him down once more for good this time.

No other hero was standing to challenge Isaac Bifford, who wasn't even breathing hard. He dusted off his shoulders and said:

"I warned you that I would win. Now that you all know I exist, I'll let you know that I'll be arriving in Chicago, Illinois in less than a week's time. I suggest that you all bring Crash Bandicoot to Chicago with you, or I will use my full power the next time we fight!"

Barely conscious, Sly Cooper looked up from the ground and repeated, "Chicago? Of all the dumb luck…"

In a panicky tone, Mario whispered, "He's comin' to MY city? You gotta be kiddin'…"

Ignoring the heroes' small comments, Isaac flipped his dreadlocks over his pointy ear and asked, "Where is Crash right now, anyway?"

"We're not…telling you!" Murray strained to say.

Isaac rolled his brown eyes. "Doesn't matter. If I don't see Crash Bandicoot in Chicago a week from now, I'll carry out my orders of destroying that city. It's his choice to show up."

"What's your beef with him, anyway?" Murray asked, coughing hoarsely.

"Let's just say that he took away my last chance at salvation," the wolfman answered coldly. Isaac reached into his gray jacket-pocket and pulled out a pair of sunshades. Putting them on, he quietly walked through the forest until he reached the highway again, leaving the injured heroes to wallow in their defeat.

From the ground, Riku commented with a bittersweet laugh, "We didn't even break his shades…"

"That guy's tougher than Reiden," Sora stated.

"That guy's a freak of nature!" Bentley added with an exasperated tone.

"And to top it off," Jak said, "he went easy on us."

Suddenly, a flash of light greeted the injured legends, followed by two precursors…

* * *

Back in Chicago, Peaches was sitting on the couch, drinking tea and watching Dr. Phil. With a concerned expression, she commented to herself, "Oh, I sure hope Dr. Phil finds out why those birds are so angry!"

A knock on her door.

She set down the cup of tea and walked over to the front door, unlocking and opening it. She nearly jumped in surprise to see the heroes standing in the apartment building's hallway, looking exhausted, sweaty, bruised, and badly beaten up. They were silent with either sullen or angry expressions plastered across their faces.

Wide-eyed and fearful, Peaches asked, "Oh, my gosh! What happened?"

Link sighed. With his arms crossed, he simply stated, "We got beat—"

"We got our asses kicked!" Jak angrily interjected, dry blood caked around his mouth.

Mario relayed, "Oh, this guy is a certified monster! It was horrible, Peaches!"

"Oh, you poor baby!" Peaches said, reaching out and hugging Mario tightly. "Was it really that bad?"

There were two others standing in the hallway Peaches had never seen before. They were the precursors Gladdus and her father Eurathaccus. The General affirmed in his militant tone, "It was very much that bad, ma'am. These privates were torn apart by a super soldier who was merely going easy on 'em. If he didn't break their bones, he most certainly broke their spirits!"

"Good job on the play-by-play, General," Ratchet commended sarcastically. "And just for the record, if anyone got owned today, it was Donald!"

"Agreed," replied Link.

"It's a good thing we showed up when we did!" Gladdus commented with a chuckle. "You all looked about ready to kick the bucket until we helped Donald heal all of you. Man, you guys were seriously messed up!"

"We know, Gladdus, thanks!" Keira retorted.

Goofy tapped a finger on his chin and had a thought. He asked everyone, "Hey, ya know somethin'? Even though he beat us to a pulp, I don't think Isaac's a bad guy."

Sly Cooper rejected, "He punched me in the face. He's a bad guy."

However, Goofy countered, "He let us live, didn't he? And if ya think about it, he only seems angry with Crash for some reason. If ya ask me, I'd say he was bluffing about destroying Chicago."

"Someone's destroying Chicago?" Peaches suddenly exclaimed, hugging Mario in a painfully tight stranglehold.

Sora sternly replied to Goofy, "Well, he works for Draksin. He's bad whether you like it or not."

Goofy turned to Keira and Kairi, "Well, didn't y'all notice that Isaac was going extra easy on you two? And every time that he caused ya some real harm, I kept seeing him stop and look like he regretted it."

Kairi caught on to what Goofy was talking about. Lightly touching the bruise on her cheek, she agreed, "Hey, you're right! When I tried to sneak up on him, and he hit me _really_ hard in the face, he just stopped and stood there. Do you think he was feeling bad?"

"A-hiyuck! I sure do!" Goofy responded.

"What's your point in all this, Goof?" Jak asked, calling the knight by a seldom-used nickname.

"Maybe if we find out why Isaac's so mad at Crash and convince him that Draksin is nothin' but bad news, we can find a good guy inside of him! And who knows, maybe he'll team up with us to take down Draksin!"

Everyone went into quiet thought about this idea. Clank was the first to admit, "That's actually very good thinking!"

Murray agreed, "Oh, yeah. It would be nice having someone as tough as him on our side!"

Jak, however, did not agree. "I still think he's gonna try to kill us the next time we meet."

Following suit with Jak, Link stated, "For all we know, he may have just been trying to keep us alive under orders from Draksin!"

Goofy pondered this. "Uh-oh. You've gotta point…but I still say he's a good guy deep down!"

Mario interjected, "How 'bout we worry about all this later. He said he'll be comin' in a week, so that's a week for us to fully heal. So Peaches, what's for lunch?"

* * *

_Let's call this the Apex Chapter number...crud, I lost count. Oh, well. Anyway, our heroes totally got 'wolfed'. And did you get the angry birds on Dr. Phil joke? No? Uncultured swine…_

_Now that I'm at the end of my chapter-upload-binge, I'm gonna take a much needed ten minute break and get right back to typing this story._

_Speaking of this story, join the heroes next time as we time-warp a week later, where Crash, Coco, and Crunch arrive looking stronger and ready for battle. Judging from their stories, it seems that Jak and the others weren't the only ones seeing some serious action in the past week. _

_Stay tuned for __**Better, Faster, Oranger!  
**_

_(This is also where **Uka Uka Reborn** takes place, between this chapter and most of the next.)_


	85. Better, Faster, Oranger

**Chapter 85: Better, Faster, Oranger**

Draksin sat on the edge of a New York skyscraper, watching the sunset with his now golden eyes. Last night, his torment of sickening thoughts kept going well into the morning until they finally ceased by midday. All throughout the rest of the day, though, he had been thinking of other things. They weren't dark thoughts, however; for some reason, he could only think of how proud he was for his son.

His son…

For the record, he wasn't thinking of his biological son, Sora (or any of his other sons, for that matter). He didn't care about him in the slightest. He was thinking about the young man who had basically been a son to him since they had met: Isaac.

That man had been loyal and efficient since the day he had recruited him. While they were locked in Oblivion, Draksin saw the unquenchable thirst for power within the wolfman, and had since been feeding that inner fire. That quest for ultimate power has shaped Isaac into the indestructible killing machine that he is today. And now that Isaac's so hell-bent on removing Crash Bandicoot from existence, Draksin was nearly convinced that he no longer needed the bandicoot as a new recruit. Nearly convinced…

Draksin looked down at the corpse lying at his feet. He didn't have the time to leisurely choose his next victim; he quickly snatched the first human he saw walking by himself, dragged him in the alley with his hand clasped over his mouth, and did his deed. He'd brought the dead, blonde-haired man up to the top of the skyscraper with him, probably to push him over the edge and make his death seem like a suicide. The man had dog tags hung around his neck that read the name "Guile."

"A military man, eh?" Draksin said, observing the man's dog tags and camo pants. "I hope your country misses you as much as I will."

* * *

_Seven days later…_

_Isaac is 25 miles from Chicago…_

Ratchet and Clank were casually strolling down the street, observing many of this place's sights. The buildings were nowhere near as tall as the ones in Metropolis, but they were still pretty impressive. The morning sun was up, and it made everything appear shinier, including Clank's metal.

Seeing a ruckus in the middle of the street, Ratchet pointed and said, "Whoa, check it out, Clank!"

Clank looked over to a closed-off intersection to see a construction crew currently trying to dig something out of the ground. It was one of those box-shaped Twisted Wipeout registry kiosks that had fallen from the sky, and it seemed pretty stuck in the street's pavement. Currently, the crew was trying (and failing) to lift it out with a tow truck's cord.

"That's one of those kiosks!" Clank pointed out.

"Yeah, you're right. Hey, didn't you say that they were made from Blargian technology? We should go check it out before they take it away."

Meanwhile, one of the workers stepped out of the tow truck and complained, "Geez-Louise, it's like this thing is rooted in there!"

"Perhaps we can be of some assistance," said Clank, walking into the closed off intersection at Ratchet's side.

The construction worker, who was an anthropoid gecko, gave Clank a demeaning look and said, "Sure. Whatever you and the furball want. We're goin' on break."

While the workers exited the construction zone, Ratchet tapped the button in the middle of the black kiosk, opening said device. After activating it, Ratchet and Clank began scrolling through the menu. The kiosk's system interface worked very similarly to an iPhone with a cluster of applications to skim through. Swiping his finger across the touch screen, Ratchet observed the many pages of different apps to go through. The Lombax told Clank, "Look, they've got a Plants vs. Zombies vs. Marvel vs. Capcom app."

"Is that a Smoothie app?" Clank said, pointing to a milkshake-shaped icon.

"Yep. Cool, there's even a Doomsday app." After scrolling through four or five pages, Ratchet and Clank came across a blue icon that read "Shop for GrummelNet Weapons."

"GrummelNet?" Ratchet read aloud, tapping the icon.

A blue webpage opened up to reveal the familiar weapons vendor from their galaxy. Ratchet cycled through the menu of new purchasable weapons until he reached an option that read "Buy Ammo." Excited, Clank turned to his furry friend and said, "Ratchet, do you know what this means?"

"Yeah, I can get smoothies from this thing!" Ratchet exclaimed.

"Not just that, but you don't have to worry about running out of ammo anymore!" Clank amended. "And since these kiosks are scattered all around the planet, we can comfortably visit Crash and Sly Cooper anytime!"

Putting in some bolts (his galaxy's method of currency) from his pocket into a slot on the kiosk, Ratchet replied, "Hey, you're right! I hope they like surprise visits."

After giving the screen a few finger-taps, Ratchet stood back as it buzzed and made a "ding" noise, as if something had just gotten done baking in an oven. At the bottom of the kiosk, Ratchet reached inside a metal flap and pulled out a full cartridge of extra Constructo Pistol bullets like it was a soda from a cooling vendor. Placing that pack of bullets in…wherever he keeps all his guns, he and Clank began to walk back to Mario's apartment building.

Making their way to the fourth floor, the duo entered Mario's apartment room, where the rest of the heroes were currently occupied. Upon entering, Ratchet announced, "Guess what we just found out! Those vendors that fell from the sky a few weeks ago—they can actually synthesize extra bullets for me just like the ones back in my galaxy! How crazy is that?"

Leaning on the kitchen's wall, Jak asked, "Can it make new guns?"

"Yeah."

"Can you go get me one?"

"You know, Jak, you could just ask to borrow one of my guns. Why don't you? I've got like twenty of 'em."

Jak frowned and responded, "Cuz your guns are really, really whacky. They look like they belong at a toy shop."

"Whoa, no need to insult a man's guns, sheesh!" Ratchet exclaimed peevishly. He turned to see that the rest of the heroes were sitting around in the living room while Bentley was reading something aloud from his laptop. Strolling into the living room, Ratchet asked, "What's goin' on?"

Bentley answered, "I'm reading some entries from Mavo's journal. I was just telling them what Draksin does to give his disciples immortality. In order for Mavo to obtain immortality, Draksin would have to drain about two pints of his blood, and then use one of the stolen souls in his special necklace to grant Dr. Mavo some extra years of life."

Daxter remarked, "So that Draksin guy is a fang-banger?"

"If that's another term for vampire, then yes," Bentley replied. "It turns out that Draksin goes out hunting for blood every month."

"Wait, I still don't get it," Sora said, scratching his head. "What do you mean by 'stolen souls'? How does that give Mavo immortality?"

Bentley explained, "It says that Draksin's necklace contains the many stolen souls of the living. Mavo writes here that one day, after formally being inducted into their little group, Draksin crept up on him and viciously bit at his neck until Mavo passed out."

"Wicked!" Riku exclaimed with a disgusted look.

"Just killed my appetite," Mario mumbled grudgingly.

"After waking up, Draksin told him that he had given Mavo a few souls, which made him impervious to aging for the next fifty years. Isn't that something?" Bentley whistled, deeply intrigued with the deceased doctor's notes.

"Does he have to keep biting them to give 'em immortality?" Goofy asked curiously.

"No, it was a one time thing. Mavo says he was thoroughly freaked out at first, but then became grateful after hearing about his newfound eternal youth." Bentley scrolled down through his laptop and added, "It seems that Draksin did the same thing to Reiden and Isaac, but not Calypso for some reason. I'll read into that later on."

Suddenly, a knock at the door caught everyone's attention. Peaches went to go answer it. After opening it, her face brightened into a wide smile as she greeted, "Luigi! Daisy! So nice to see ya!"

A man who looked very identical to Mario stepped in, along with another brown-haired woman. The man was taller and thinner than Mario, but shared the same bushy mustache. He wore gray slacks and a green dress shirt, along with a green hat with the letter "L" on it. The woman he was with had chestnut hair that fell down to her back, and she wore a bright yellow shirt and brown pants.

The man, Luigi, shouted with open arms in fluent Italian, _"Peaches, mia bella!"_

Mario looked up and shouted indignantly with a wide grin, "Luigi, you son of a gun! 'Bout time you got back!"

After finishing his hug with Peaches, Luigi strolled over to Mario and roughly embraced his brother, shouting happily in Italian, _"Mio fratello, si guarda bene! Mi sei mancato!"_

"Why is it that every time you come back from Italy, you speak that gibberish in my face?" Mario asked with a cold expression.

Speaking in English, Luigi retorted with an offended expression, "Well, excuse me for speaking our native language!"

"Yeah, whatever," Mario said dryly, rolling his eyes.

"So when are you going to introduce me to your new friends?"

Luigi was gesturing to the idly lounging heroes, who were all giving him relatively pleasant looks. Mario waved them off disrespectfully, "Oh, they're just some hobos Peaches and I took from the street."

"Hey!" Daxter protested.

"We're the heroes that he's been helping out," Bentley explained. "He even went into the Twisted Wipeout races with us."

Luigi turned to Mario and asked, "You fixed their plumbing or something?"

Mario smirked and replied, "Not only that, but I kicked that blonde guy's—"

"Shut UP! Shut up!" Link immediately screamed in annoyance. "I was being mind-controlled! Big deal!"

Just then, Daisy grabbed Luigi by his shoulders and pled in a soft voice, "C'mon, Luigi, let's tell them already!"

Luigi's face brightened up as he said, _"Sì, sì!"_ Taking hold of Daisy's left hand, Luigi showed everyone in the apartment room the shining ring on her ring finger.

Peaches exclaimed, "Oh, it's beautiful!"

"It's an engagement ring!" Daisy told her with unyielding excitement.

"Wha…?" Peaches looked dumbfounded.

Luigi clarified, "I proposed to her in Italy!"

This bit of information caused the three other females in the room and oddly Goofy, too, to coo and aw. Luigi capitalized on the pure joviality floating in the room, "It was perfect! I took her to the top of this old cathedral in Florence, we watched the sunset together…" His voice began to take on an authentic Italian accent as he added, "We-a danced on top of the tower, then-a we kissed-a!" Luigi took two of his fingers and pressed them to his lips. "Then I got down on one knee-a and showed her-a the ring! _Ha detto di sì! __Lei è il mio amore della mia vita!__"_

Kairi asked Mario, "What's he saying?"

Sighing heavily, the plumber grumpily answered, "Ugh, he said something about, 'She said yes,' and, 'She is the love of my life,' or some junk…"

Peaches giddily shrieked, "Oh, I'm so excited for the both of you!"

Mario just seemed to be grumbling ever since Luigi walked in and spoke. Peaches noticed Mario's irritable behavior and beckoned to him, "Isn't this exciting, Mario? Say something, dummy!"

Rolling his eyes, Mario forced himself to say, "Yeah, uh…that's really somethin'. Congratulations, Luigi and Daisy."

Daisy gratefully thanked Mario in her soft voice, "Thank you Mario, that's very sweet of you to say!"

There was another knock at the door. Actually, it was more like a pound. And then another pound resounded on the door, followed by a gruff voice on the other side of it complaining, "Coco, this new arm you built me keeps acting up! What gives?"

"I don't know, maybe you need more self-control?" another voice replied.

After another loud pound, the gruff voice strained to say, "Maybe this thing is short circuiting! It keeps hitting stuff!"

Finally, the apartment door burst off its metal hinges, clattering to the ground to reveal Crash, Crunch, and Coco standing in the hall. Shaking his head at the broken door, Crash commented, "Good thing this is the right room."

Somehow ignoring the broken door, Luigi greeted cheerfully, _"Benvenuto!"_

"Shut up," Mario grumbled. Turning his attention to the bandicoots, he grinned and said, "'Bout time you mooks showed up. You're payin' for that by the way."

Daxter jumped up and shouted, "All RIGHT! Crash, hot-stuff, and the big guy are here!"

"Feels like it's been awhile," Ratchet added. "Good to see you guys again."

"Have you gotten stronger?" Jak asked with a raised brow. "Right about now, we need some newfound strength."

Coco answered, "I think it's safe to say that we're a little different from the bandicoots we were before."

It was true. There was something different about the three bandicoots. For one, Crash wasn't wearing his golden jacket, just jeans and a white tank top with his sword strapped across his torso. He stood idly with his hands in his pockets, a much calmer poise the others weren't used to seeing. Coco wore a white T and black shorts with a green jacket of sorts tied around her waist. She stood with her arms crossed, probably with the same headstrong attitude as before. Crunch had kept his camo pants and combat boots, but there was something a little different on his right arm. Instead of the silver cybernetic arm he used to roll with, a clunky blue one had replaced it. His new metal hand seemed to twitch uncontrollably every now and then.

"I guess, Aku Aku's training worked for you guys," Sly remarked. Just noticing that the witchdoctor was nowhere to be found, he asked, "Where is Aku Aku, anyway?"

Coco waved her hand casually and said, "Ah, you know, dead."

A confused silence fell over the rest of the apartment room's inhabitants. Mario broke it by asking, "How can a piece of wood kick the bucket?"

"Mario, some respect!" Peaches instantly chastised. "So who's Aku Aku?"

Crash answered plainly, "He was our mentor and father."

Addressing the blonde woman who had asked the question, Coco smiled and held out her hand, greeting her, "You must be Mario's fiancée. Peaches, right?"

"Aw, he talks about me?" Peaches blushed, shaking Coco's hand and beaming at Mario.

"We're Coco, Crash, and Crunch," Coco explained gesturing to herself, then her brother and the red-furred bandicoot.

Concerned, Keira asked, "Wait, how—how did he die?"

This time, Crunch answered, "It's actually a long story. But the good part is that we can always visit him through a tomb on N. Sanity Island."

After sitting down and finishing the introductions, Crunch and Coco took the time to explain Uka Uka's brief reign of terror over Wumpa City and how Aku Aku had died in the crossfire. When they were much younger, Crash and Coco remembered Aku Aku telling them that if something ever happened to his physical form, his spirit could be summoned at any time in the ancient Temple of Witchdoctors on N. Sanity Island. Crunch even told them about how his cybernetic arm was destroyed by Uka Uka. Currently, Crash was in the middle of explaining his battle with Pinstripe, Tiny, and Dr. N. Tropy.

"So there I am…" Crash relayed, making his story as dramatic as possible. "My paws are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy. There's vomit on my fur already—Crunch's spaghetti. I'm nervous, but on the surface, I look calm and ready to drop bad guys, but I keep on forgetting I'm in a showdown, the whole town goes so loud, I throw my fists, but the bad guys won't go down. I'm chokin', now! Coco's just broken down, the clock's run out, time's up, OVER—!"

"Crash, stop ripping off songs!" Coco yelled from the kitchen.

Growling in frustration, Crash yelled back, "Thanks, you messed up my story! Now where was I…? Oh, yeah. My paws are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy—"

Jak quickly cut him off, "Actually, Crash, we get it, you beat up some bad guys. But there's something we haven't told you, yet."

Murray added, "Yeah, we actually went to confront that wolfman, Isaac, but we failed miserably."

"You guys fought Isaac?" Crash repeated.

"Yeah, and he's SO strong, he beat us all at once," Sora expressed.

Riku added, "Not just strong, amazingly skilled, too. He said he'd be on his way here within the week, so he might show up any day now."

Ratchet raised an eyebrow and asked, "Did ya know that he's got some kind of vendetta for you, Crash? He really, really wants you dead for some reason."

Crash shook his head and casually replied with a nervous grin, "Heh, that's usually the way things go for me."

"That's why we hoped your training went well back on the island," Jak said solemnly. "And from the sound of it, you got more than a fair amount of training." Sighing, Jak also admitted, "We can't beat him, Crash, but if anyone can, it's you."

Laughing sheepishly, Crash wrapped his hands behind his furry head and innocently said, "If I don't, who will?"

With a yawn, Crunch interjected, "Certainly not me if I don't get rid of this stupid jetlag. Where are we crashin' for the night? Er, no pun intended."

"You can use the room me, Dax, Murray, and Keira are sharing," Jak offered. "I didn't know you guys flew here. How long was the flight?"

"About twelve lovable hours," Crash replied sarcastically. "Coco insisted that we use her old, busted-up hover-plane that took her a day to fix. Then the flying crud-mobile _really_ broke down over the Pacific Ocean and started falling from the sky."

Crunch shook his head with a shameful look as he added, "We had to ditch the plane while it was falling—it was the most terrifying experience of my life. Anyway, we used our powers to fly the rest of the way here, and not only are we tired and hungry, but there's a psycho wolfman on his way to fight us."

Jak nodded and commented, "It's been a tough ride for all of us."

Standing up, Crash announced, "Actually, I think I'll go out and walk around for a bit. Just explore the place."

On his way out the apartment room, Coco called after him, "Don't piss off anyone! You tend to do that in crowded settings."

"Thanks for the tip, sis."

* * *

_Crud, Aku Aku kicked the bucket. Ah, well! Cole McGrath, read my bios!_

**Cole:** No problem.

Luigi

**Age:** 34  
**Gender:** Male  
**Species:** Human

Luigi is that second palette-swapped figure from Mario Bros. we all know and love. Of course, he doesn't do that pipe-jumping thing, anymore. He fixes them alongside his brother, Mario. Recently, Luigi received a raise in his plumber's salary, which greatly irked his brother Mario, and has since treated his girlfriend Daisy to a sweet vacation in Florence, Italy, where he proposed to her. He has apparently travelled to Italy more than once, because every time he comes back, he speaks nothing but rich Italian, which is also something that weighs on Mario's nerves. Luigi is a little more fun-loving and free than his older brother, but there are still some distinct physical similarities between them. Luigi first appeared in _Mario Bros.,__ 1983._

Daisy

**Age:** 29  
**Gender:** Female  
**Species: **Human

Luigi's sweetheart since he fixed her washing machine, Daisy loves anything that has to do with spring and sunshine. Ever since Luigi got his promotion, she's been treated like a princess, which has mildly made her best friend Peaches envious. During their trip to Italy, Luigi proposed to her in what she describes was the most romantic, intimate way possible. Daisy enjoys her occupation as a hair-dresser at the Sarasa Beauty Salon, where her wages seem to be the tiniest bit higher than Peaches', which is something else that pique's her best friend's jealousy. Daisy first appeared in _Super Mario Land,__ 1989._

_Thanks, Cole! I'll mention ya sometime! Stay tuned for the next one, either tonight or tomorrow. _


	86. Micayla

**Chapter 86: Micayla**

Crash had purposely left his sword in the apartment so he wouldn't draw attention from the ordinary citizens. Just whistling and walking along the sidewalk of the Windy City, Crash breathed in the morning air, feeling pretty alive at the moment. Upon exhaling, he heard a ruckus ahead of him.

Across the street, there was a large group of protestors standing in front of an old library house. Standing in front of the protestors with extremely annoyed looks was a team of construction workers, probably irritated because those protestors were hindering the process of destroying the place.

Crash decided he would walk up to the protestors and ask what the big deal was. Strolling across the street and past the angry workers, Crash walked up to one protesting coyote-man who was holding a picket sign that read, "Knowledge First, Man!" After reading the sign, Crash asked, "What's all the hubbub?"

In a stereotypical hippie's doped-up tone, he replied, "They're tryna replace the Spectrum Library with a Hobby Lobby, man! Fight the power!"

"I see…" Crash said, scratching his chin in thought. "I think I can help you guys."

Turning around and walking over to the city worker's boss, a gray-furred anthropoid weasel in a hardhat, Crash politely asked, "Hey, can you not tear this place down?"

Angrily, the weasel yelled, "No!"

Shrugging, Crash turned and walked back to the hippie. "Sorry, man. I tried."

"Please, that wasn't anything!" said a voice from behind him.

Crash casually turned around and nearly died of uninhibited infatuation. In possibly the most metaphorical manner possible, everything else besides _her_ went black: the sky, the ground, the city. All he could do was focus on the anthropoid girl who had just ridiculed him. She wore black jeans, blue Chuck Taylors, and a blue T-shirt. Over her raven-black hair was a blue, woolly beanie hat. Accompanied by a black snout and jade-green eyes was a condescending expression as she glared at Crash. He, however, could swear she was the reason why the sun was shining that day; everything about this girl epitomized beauty. There was also something else familiar about this anthropoid girl…

Taking that metaphor I mentioned earlier to the next level, Crash decided he needed to marinade this woman immediately (even though it would only happen in his mind). Magically, a microphone fell from the sky, and he whispered into it, "Beautiful girls, all over the world…I could be chasin', but my time would be wasted—they got nothin' on YOU, baby! Nothin' on you, baby!"

Still trapped in that metaphor, Crash moved closer and sang, "They might say 'Hi.' And I might say—"

"HEY!" yelled a shrill voice in his subconscious. Confused, Crash turned around and nearly jumped at the sight of Coco, who then shouted, "What did I say about ripping off songs?"

Crash began, "How are you—?"

"That's right, I'm policing your fantasies, now, bub!" Coco snickered.

Um…so, finally everything returned to normal, including the background and the fact that Coco was nowhere to be found. Crash looked at the girl who'd just scorned his attempts at helping out the cause and said, "Sorry, I wish I could help out more."

"Then just go away!" the girl commanded. "We don't want lazy yucks like you! We need people who'll act!"

"Act? But I can! Wanna see my impression of Optimus Prime?" Placing a finger to his chin, Crash mumbled, "Now which one was he, again…?"

The girl, who was holding a sign with the words "Hobby Lobby" crossed out, shook her head at the bandicoot and told him off, "Get lost, orange boy!"

The weasel with the hardhat suddenly yelled from his remote position, "I've had enough of your hippie who-ha for one day! I'm calling the Koopa Gang on all of ya's!"

"Already here!" said a muscular tortoise in a green muscle shirt, cracking his knuckles, followed by three other tortoises.

The construction worker weasel grinned and said, "Excellent. I just need you guys to clear these horseflies out of the way, if ya don't mind."

"Uh-oh," uttered the girl, glancing at the approaching Koopa Gang. She turned around and noticed that the other protestors were long gone, sprinting like crazy down the street. Angrily, she yelled after them, "Cowards! Well, I'm not moving!"

Crash was still there with her, nervously looking from the so-called Koopa Gang and back at her. He suddenly braved up and declared, "Don't worry, I won't let these goons hurt you!"

"Don't try anything stupid. These guys are serious," the girl skeptically warned. "What in the world could you possibly do?"

Valiant at first, Crash said, _"I…_am not so sure."

This was due to the fact that one of the turtle gang members had walked so close to Crash that they were basically nose-and-nose. Coco was right, he sure did have a habit of pissing people off. The thug then growled to the bandicoot, "Beat it, dipstick!"

"No way, especially if you're just going to bully her," Crash stated firmly.

"Fine by me!"

The turtle threw his fist into the left side of Crash's head. For a moment, the gangster thought the punch connected. However, upon closer inspection, the bandicoot's right hand was steadfastly holding off his scaly fist from colliding anywhere near his skull.

"What in the…?" the tortoise stumbled.

"You punch kinda slow," Crash remarked before throwing his own fist into the center of the tortoise's face. Crash had hit him with such force that he instantly hit the ground, fast asleep.

The other three gangsters gaped and quickly decided to dart over to the bandicoot. One of them threw a jab in Crash's direction, who weaved around it with a smile and punched him in his scaly belly. Turning around, he began to simply avoid every attack from another gangster by slightly moving his head left and right. After a while, Crash yawned and grabbed the incoming fist from the air, twisting it violently and ramming his palm into the mobster's nose.

"Whoa, nice one, dude!" said the girl, laughing at the carnage Crash was causing.

"Thanks!" Crash replied, losing his focus.

Unbeknownst to him, the last gangster had drawn a knife and was quickly approaching him from behind. The protesting girl noticed this and quickly alerted Crash, "Hey, look out!"

Spotting the impending sneak attack, Crash grimaced at the shiny blade and quickly sidestepped the attack, throwing his elbow into the turtle's teeth and kicking him into a phone booth.

Wide-eyed in disbelief, the weasel-man yelled, "You're lucky I didn't hire the Potoroo gang! Unfortunately, their boss is in the hospital…"

Crash glared at him and said, "I'm the one who PUT him in the hospital! Now don't come back here again!"

"You're also lucky I'm a spineless coward!" the weasel said before running away with his construction crew.

The girl ran up to Crash and praised, "Thanks for the save, orange boy! That Koopa Gang is bad news."

"They weren't so tough," Crash stated, sniffing and dusting off his shirt conceitedly.

Holding out her hand, the girl introduced herself, "I'm Micayla, but my friends sometimes call me Cayla. Sorry for telling you to get lost earlier."

Smiling uncontrollably, Crash replied, "Good thing I didn't. Oh, I'm Crash. Crash Bandicoot."

Shaking hands, Cayla politely said, "Well, it's nice to meet you, Crash Bandi—holy crap! You're bleeding!"

Confused, Crash furrowed his brows at the girl and followed her gaze to his left arm, which was indeed wounded and matting his fur with blood. Raising his eyebrows, Crash remarked casually, "I wonder how that got there."

"That guy must've cut you! Oh, this is all my fault—follow me, I'll get you some first aid!" Cayla quickly said, snatching Crash by his unwounded arm and pulling down the street.

* * *

_Isaac is 13 miles outside of Chicago's border…_

After Crash received bandages on his arm from a local clinic, the pair went to a nearby Baskin Robins to sit down at a booth and talk. Watching Crash scarf down a strawberry sundae, an intrigued Micayla asked, "So how did you learn all those cool moves, Crash?"

Taking a brief intermission from his sundae, Crash answered, "From Aku Aku."

"Is he your dojo-training master, or something?"

"No, he was my witchdoctor-mentor guy. He's dead now, though," Crash replied plainly.

Cayla looked a little mystified as she said, "Sorry to hear that. So…you're not from around here, are you?"

"Nope. I'm from an Australian island called Wumpa Island. Have you heard of it?"

"Nope," Cayla deadpanned, "but I have heard of a Wumpa City. Didn't that place get seriously totaled by a terrorist bomb?"

"Actually, it was a super-strong bad guy named Uka Uka," Crash explained, still attacking his sundae.

"Uka Uka, huh…" Cayla repeated, smiling absentmindedly.

Crash paused and immediately recognized something in her smile. Yes, he had seen it all along. They looked like the exact same person. Cayla shared every physical feature with…

"Naomi…?" Crash said slowly, his spoon hovering in front of his mouth.

Cayla blinked confusedly. "No, it's Cayla. Did they hit you on the head, too?"

"You…look like someone I've seen before. Have we ever met?"

A little perturbed by this, Cayla replied with an uneasy laugh, "No, I don't think so."

"What about in a dream?" Crash tried.

Laughing, Cayla declared, "Okay, you are now the weirdest person I've ever met."

"Guess not…" Crash muttered to himself. He quickly changed the subject, "So, um, what was so special about that library you were guarding?"

Perked up, Cayla responded, "Well, that wasn't just a library. It was also a recreational center for homeless kids. They bring them in and keep 'em away from drugs and gangs. I grew up with that library after my mom died, you know."

"Oh. Now I see why you nearly bit my head off for not trying harder," Crash mentioned with a chuckle.

"Yeah, sorry about that. And thanks for protecting me, again," Cayla said, reaching out and touching his furry hand.

Two red circles lit up in Crash's cheeks. "No problem, ma'am."

Cayla drew back her hand with a smirk and said, "Oh, don't act like a boy scout. That stuff doesn't work on me."

Guiltlessly, Crash disclosed himself, "I wasn't trying to work anything on you."

"Oh, sure."

"Really, I like to treat people with respect."

"You sure treated those Koopa guys with a whole bunch of respect."

Crash laughed as he recollected the inglorious beating those turtle guys received from such a small bandicoot. "Hey, they don't deserve my respect if they're trying to hurt an innocent girl, know what I mean?"

Pretending to look confused, Cayla asked, "They were trying to hurt an innocent girl? Why didn't you save her instead of me?"

Laughing, Crash corrected himself, "My mistake. I had no right to call you innocent…"

Shrugging, Cayla added, "Still a girl, though."

"Yeah, I noticed." Looking over Micayla's head, Crash's smile began to fade when he noticed someone familiar sitting a few booths behind her. That blonde-headed person smirked at Crash before she stood up and strolled out of the ice cream shop. Crash quickly told Micayla, "Um, Cayla? Stay here, I've gotta go chat with someone…"

Briskly standing up and pacing out of the shop, Crash caught up to his snickering sister near a lamppost and urgently asked, "What were you doing in there?"

"Well, big brother," Coco began, a sly edge to her voice, "Daisy gave me money to go out and shop around, so I thought ice cream sounded good. And apparently, ice cream sounds _really_ good to you." That last statement caused Crash to roll his eyes irritably. Coco then asked, "So who's the girl?"

"Just someone I helped out earlier," Crash explained. He pointed to the bandages on his arm and continued, "I got hurt, so she bought me a strawberry sundae."

"Ooh, a sundae!" Coco mocked. "That totally means she wants you, Crashy-poo!"

"Shut up…" Crash mumbled.

"Maybe you should change your name to 'Crush Bandi-Cute'."

"And maybe you should marry Sonic!" Crash exclaimed.

Looking suddenly stricken with horror, Coco shushed him and whisper-yelled, "You said you wouldn't bring that up again!"

Looking around like a paranoia patient, Coco quickly paced down the sidewalk in the opposite direction. Satisfied, Crash returned to the Baskin Robins and sat back down in the booth with Cayla. He apologized, "Sorry about that—what were we talkin' about?"

Cayla, however, didn't seem too interested in their previous conversation anymore. In fact, she was sitting with her arms crossed and giving the bandicoot a look of disdain. She asked, "So what, you're a real ladies' man?"

Confused by her change in attitude, Crash uttered, "Um…what?"

Rolling her eyes, Cayla asked, "Who's the pretty blonde, Crash?"

Looking left and right, Crash confusedly asked, "What pretty blonde?"

"I told you to stop acting around me, Crash."

At this point, Crash was finding this a little humorous. Still not knowing a single thing that she was talking about, Crash stated with a grin, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh, really? It's okay, I'm not gonna freak out if she's your girlfriend or something," Cayla calmly said with a not-so calm expression.

Checking under the table, Crash said, "Who are you talking about? I don't have a girlfriend!"

"Oh, so she's just in your collection of pretty girls, right?" Cayla accused, giving Crash a disgusted look.

Crash's mind was racing as he tried to figure out what was going on this woman's head. Hastily looking around, Crash responded, "I'm sorry, but the only pretty girl I see in here is you!"

"Oh, spare me that Casanova bull," Cayla instantly put down. "I saw you talking to that gorgeous blonde. You don't need to lie anymore."

This time Crash laughed. Throwing his hands up in tumultuous confusion, he asked again, "Cayla, what gorgeous blonde are talking about? Explain what point in time that I spoke to another pretty girl."

"When you went outside just now, you stupid furball!" Cayla replied with an acidic tone.

"I didn't talk to any pretty girl! I only went out there to talk to my spying sister and then came back in here," Crash finally cleared up.

As expected, Cayla's expression changed from angry to flabbergasted. She stumbled, "S-Sister? That was your sister out there?"

"Yeah, why?"

Relieved, Cayla laughed and asked, "Why didn't you tell me that was your sister? I feel like an idiot."

"Well, you kept asking who the 'pretty blonde' was. My sister is blonde, but I do not think she's pretty, therefore she didn't fully meet the criteria."

Shaking her head with a smile, Cayla murmured, "Oh, my god…So, you think I'm the prettiest girl in here?"

Crash forgot he had said that. Nodding, he added, "Yeah, and definitely the scariest."

Blushing, Cayla scratched her head in shame. "Aw, thanks, and sorry about all that. I tend to jump to conclusions. I don't know…it's just that I've never met anyone like you before. I thought there had to be a catch."

"No big deal, Cayla. So what else have ya got planned for today? Any more civil protests?"

"No thanks, but I am gonna check back at the library later on to make sure they're gone for good." Micayla smiled at Crash and asked, "You got anything planned?"

"Um…" What was he supposed to be doing in this city again…? "Not much, just check out the city and eat ice cream."

"Really? I could help you out with that!" Cayla replied enthusiastically. She grabbed Crash by his unwounded arm again and dragged out the ice cream shop. Walking out its doors, she clarified, "Just so you know, this is _not_ a date. Just a tour."

"That's fine by me," Crash replied optimistically.

* * *

Get it, Sub-Zero!

**Sub-Zero: **For the Lin Kuei!

Micayla Animo

**Age:** 16  
**Gender:** Female  
**Species:** Lioness

A resident of Chicago, Illinois, Micayla has lived there for as long as she can remember. After being orphaned at an early age, she spent many of her days on the streets, in and out of foster homes, and in the Spectrum Library with other kids. A little less than two weeks ago, she decided to live within the library when it closes down after running away from her foster home. She hasn't told very many people about her living condition. She can be a bit territorial, and her attitude is on the independent side, showing scorn for anyone who labels her as helpless and whatnot. Strangely, she shares many physical features with Naomi Kitashi, the lioness girl from Crash's dreams. Despite seeming to have no other connection with Naomi, Micayla is deeply fascinated by Crash and his antics.

_On the next chapter, Isaac arrives…_


	87. Power

**Chapter 87: Power**

A few hours later, during sunset…

Isaac had flown into the heart of the busy city. Standing atop a massive building with plethoric glass windows, Isaac stared down at the town with his arms crossed, thinking solely of his mission. Those heroes better have brought the bandicoot he was looking for, or else it was there lives, as well.

Speaking of those heroes, he could somehow feel their familiar life forces nearby. They were already here in the city…Did this mean that he didn't have to level Chicago? It's not that he cared about this place, he just wouldn't cause untold destruction of he didn't have to. But then again, Draksin did give him explicit orders to raise hell. He had to honor his master's decree no matter what. He wasn't much of a murderer, but he would at least make sure plenty of things fell down and/or blew up.

Standing atop that windy tower, Isaac's dreadlocks and jacket blew in the breeze as he painfully remembered what Naomi had said to him that one night on the beach. He remembered staring brokenheartedly into her eyes as she told him, "I'm sorry...but I love him. And he needs me…and as long as you work for that demon, I can't really see us being together."

Angered beyond belief, Isaac clenched his fists and furiously affirmed to himself, "I _will_ annihilate him, Naomi. Then you will have _no one…_just like I have!"

At that last word, he transformed into his second form, the Lunar Form. Although the only changes were his golden eyes and fur, there was untold power within the wolfman.

He was going to make this city America's new ground zero…

* * *

Back in the apartment building, Mario, Peaches, Ratchet, and Coco were occupying Mario's apartment room. Ratchet was in the midst of retelling the heroes' brutal defeat at Isaac's hands. The Lombax relayed, "And when Bentley's mech-suit went down, Murray was still standing to have at another round. Of course, he went down in ten seconds. Man, I tell you, Isaac is a force to be reckoned with. If you ask me, no one man should have all that power…"

Coco was reclining in Mario's armchair with her feet up on the ottoman, staring daggers at the short plumber leaning against the wall. Mario noticed her doing this for the fifth time and asked sourly, "Somethin' on my face?"

"No, you're fine, _hustler,"_ Coco responded, injecting that last word with acid.

Ratchet suddenly cut in, "So I guess I'll continue my story another time, then…"

Sitting on the couch, Peaches perked up. Looking from Mario to Coco, she asked, "Why's she callin' you a hustler, Mario?"

"I, uh, don't know…" Mario trailed off, sending a glare Coco's way.

Coco then decided to bring up, "You know what I just realized? Mario paid for all the expenses on our road to the Twisted Wipeout Grand Prix. He made sure we had fancy hotel rooms, unlimited meals and room service, and I think we even got a free round of lemonade at a lemonade bar. Good thing Mario was carrying so much money to pamper us like that."

Mario's eyes bulged, as he figured out what was going on. On the couch next to Peaches, Ratchet assumed the position known as "duck and cover", feeling something strong about to erupt within the blonde dancer.

Shocked and angry, Peaches yelled at her fiancée, "What? You're runnin' around half the globe and spendin' top dollar so you and your friends can have fancy hotel rooms—without me?"

"Baby, j-just listen for a second!" Mario panicked. "I, uh, found that money…"

"Then why didn't you bring any money home?" Peaches interrogated, standing up and scolding the plumber.

"Cuz…um…"

"I sit here in this rundown apartment room of ours, fighting off roaches that look like they crawled here all the way from Texas, and you've had a stash of money all this time?"

Sighing heavily, Mario looked from an instigating Coco to an infuriated Peaches and decided to come clean, "Peaches…I was selling those special mushrooms again…"

"Oh my GOD!" Rather dramatically, Peaches got down to her knees and chaotically wailed into the air, "Why is my fiancée such a criminal and a horrible liar? Why?"

After a long day of walking, talking, and good fun, Crash and Cayla had arrived at the front doorstep of Mario's apartment building. Smiling at Crash, Cayla asked, "This where you're staying until you get back to Wumpa Island?"

"Yeah, my new friend, Mario, lives here," Crash explained. "You know, Cayla, I had a lot of fun with you today while we explored the town, occasionally pointing and laughing at people doing stupid things while they thought no one was looking."

"Yeah, totally." Cayla turned and noticed an anthropoid bear walking on the other side of the street. Cayla pointed and muttered, "Crash, get a load of that guy!"

Crash noticed the bear and instantly began laughing. He watched as the bear-man struggled to find the button on the post of the street light that allowed him to walk across the street. He looked pretty dumb in the distance, searching for the obvious, shiny button concealed by nothing but a yellow box. Crash laughed and commented, "Look, he still can't find it!"

"Almost there," Cayla said, cheering the bear on.

"He's almost got it," Crash edged.

Finally, with a look of idiocy, the bear found the button behind the box and promptly pushed it, glancing around and making sure no one had noticed his temporary period of stupidity.

Crash applauded, "Alright, he did it!"

"In record time, too!" Cayla added. "Man, people are such idiots."

Crash made a note-to-self: never be an idiot.

Micayla suddenly suggested, "Hey, you should let me meet your sister!"

"Um…sure, but we're gonna need some bullet-proof glass to separate the two of you. She's got an explosive personality," Crash played off, laughing and leaning on the apartment building.

"I've got a feeling we'd get along anyway," Cayla implied, leaning closer to Crash, eyes slowly closing.

Eyes flying open, Crash wrapped his arms around Cayla's waistline and flew off in the middle of the street in the blink of an eye. Hovering with the raven-haired girl about twenty feet above the street, Crash watched as a city bus collided into the fourth floor of the apartment building. Debris and bricks rained down on the spot Crash and Cayla were just leaning on, dust filling the air.

Micayla, stupefied by what had just preceded, heaved heavy breaths as she tightly held Crash around the back of his neck. After looking down, she shrieked, "AH! What happened to the ground?"

Looking cautious, Crash replied, "Calm down, it's just below us. I can fly, by the way."

A loud explosion resounded throughout the city, probably from the next borough over, followed by another explosion and horrified cries of terror. Crash looked up to see more vehicles flying from the other borough in turmoil. In the sky, a helicopter, most likely dedicated to a local news station, was hovering above the madness and recording it all until a smoking SUV was catapulted into it, causing it to spin out of control and careen toward their street.

Crash flew Cayla and himself closer to the half-destroyed apartment building to avoid the falling helicopter, which skidded through the street until colliding with a few fleeing cars. That's when Crash decided to land, setting Cayla and himself down on the middle of the deserted street.

From the apartment's undamaged front doors, a bunch of the apartment-dwellers had wearily emerged, including the other heroes, obviously quite shaken up from the bus-collision. Regretfully, Crash had forgotten about his friends. He shouted over to them, "Is anyone hurt?"

Coughing from the dust, Sly Cooper answered, "No, no we're fine. It was Mario's apartment room that got rocked the hardest."

"And it looks like Coco, Ratchet, Mario, and Peaches were able to get out of there alive!" Murray added, pointing to the four people stumbling to get out of the building.

While another earthshaking explosion resounded, Coco complained, "Does someone wanna tell me why a stinkin' bus just flew inches away from my head?"

Also, Yoshi and Toad were making their way out of the building's entrance, coughing and heaving from the dust. Toad exclaimed hysterically, "What in all dat is holy is dis city coming to?"

Yoshi looked back at the half-destroyed building, angrily screaming, "My BUILDING! Who do this? WHO?"

Peaches also seemed to be suffering from the shock of it all as she cried, "We're poor, our apartment's been destroyed along with all our stuff, AND my fiancée's a criminal! That's it, Mario, I wanna break up—we're over!"

Mario sighed drearily. Pulling something out of his pocket, he told Peaches, "Honey…I was gonna show you this after everyone left, but obviously it's now or never. I actually did use some of that money I got from hustlin' mushrooms and bought a better engagement ring for you while I was in Russia. Here."

Peaches took the small black box from Mario's hand and opened it, nearly bawling right there on the spot at the sight of the precious rock. Putting the ring on, Peaches happily exclaimed, "Oh, Mario it's so beautiful! I love you!"

Accepting his fiancée's warm embrace, Mario replied with a triumphant grin, "Love you, too, babe."

"Wow," Kairi said emptily, watching the shallow scene before her. Then she changed her tone, "It's still pretty sweet, though…"

After another loud explosion erupted from deeper within the city, Luigi suggested, "Maybe we should all do a quick headcount. That bus nearly shook the Italiano outta me!"

"Good idea," Jak agreed. Counting everyone briefly, he stated, "That should be everybody we know."

From Jak's shoulder, Daxter noticed Crash idly standing in the middle of the street. He also noticed his companion and asked him, "Yo, Crash! That some girl you saved?"

Crash turned and hesitantly answered, "No, she's…well, actually, I did save her at some point today—"

Suddenly, an explosion that was clearly much closer to them than the previous ones rattled the street. Ahead of the heroes was an intersection that appeared to be the epicenter of said explosion. It had caused a terrible smokescreen to enshroud the entire intersection; barely visible through the smoke was a black shadow, which appeared to be a standing man.

The citizens of Chicago had fled in the opposite direction, most abandoning their cars and just running like heck down the street. Right now, every hero, heroine, and fiancée was nervously staring at the obscure smokescreen in the street next to Crash and Cayla. Crash narrowed his eyes. Whatever was causing all this destruction was definitely standing in that smoky intersection…

Suddenly, Crunch appeared next to Crash. He alerted the smaller bandicoot, "You know what's about to happen, right?"

Crash nodded. "Isaac."

Cayla tugged on Crash's arm fearfully, shakily saying, "Crash, please tell me what's going on!"

"That man standing over there in the smoke wants to kill me," Crash lowly explained. "Then, he wants to destroy everything else. I'm here to stop all of that."

Micayla looked saddened as she slowly shook her head and said, "It's official. You're definitely the weirdest guy I've ever met."

"You said that already," Crash remarked. "Listen, you should stand back. This fight might get a little messy, and I don't want you getting in the way."

"You're seriously going to fight—right now? Aren't you gonna at least get some help?" Cayla asked desperately.

"No…I've gotta take him by myself."

Noticing that the smoke was thinning, Coco called to Crash, "Get ready, bro! It's about to go down!"

Crash inhaled deeply, calming his senses. It was now or never. He was ready for anything this wolfman had to offer.

* * *

**Optimus Prime: **I shall handle this bio, Hybrid!

Omega Isaac

**Age:** ?  
**Gender:** Male  
**Species:** Omega Lycan

In this form, Isaac Bifford is truly indestructible. Crafted by Draksin during their imprisonment in the Realm of Oblivion, this form is meant for wiping out entire species within minutes. Isaac's Lunar Form allows him to focus the energy he collects from the moonlight into raw power. That focused power then gives him super-sonic speed and agility, which can be comparable to that of Super Sonic's speed and agility. Also, his strength reaches godlike levels, greatly surpassing even that of Dragon Reiden, Harpy Calypso, and Demon Mavo combined. Heck, he might even be stronger than Chuck Norris. Omega Isaac is an O.C. Of _CadeXHybrid._

_The next chapter ain't called __**Indestructible **__for no reason! Stay tuned!_


	88. Indestructible

**Chuck Norris: **I heard what you said about me, Hybrid.

_(Receives a punch to the face from the fist hidden in his beard.)_

**Chapter 88: Indestructible**

Omega Isaac could hear more helicopters hovering above his smoke-enshrouded position. They weren't his primary focus, however. Through the wafting smoke, he could barely make out the many heroes he had previously beaten a week ago and a few others he had yet to meet. He heard some of them address an orange-furred figure by the name of "Crash." And that figure had responded to them. This was it…

The heroes stood in apprehensive silence as they waited for the smoke to dissipate. Crash, still focusing his stance between Cayla and Crunch, stared unblinkingly at the tall shadow in the heart of the smokescreen. The opaque smoke wafted in the slight breeze a bit, partially revealing two very angry golden eyes…

A golden blur.

If it weren't for the horrible pain, Crash almost wouldn't have noticed that a fist had collided into his cheek, inevitably sending him flying like a cannonball down to the end of the street. With looks of shock, Crunch and Cayla barely missed noticing the golden wolfman standing between them before he took off in another blur down the street after the bandicoot.

Crash smacked into the side of an abandoned car, denting its door in. Barely opening his eyes to notice the blur surging his way, Crash thought quickly and back-flipped onto the car's roof. Isaac had appeared, his fist planted deeply within the car door Crash was just sitting against. Next, Isaac easily lifted the car Crash was standing upon, causing the bandicoot to stumble and hit the street.

With the car raised high, Isaac thrust the automobile down over Crash, who just had a second to roll out of the way. Narrowly dodging the metal deathtrap, Crash flipped to a standing position, only to meet a heavy fist rocket into his stomach. Before he knew it, Isaac spun around to bring his foot across the bandicoot's nose, rocking Crash's vision for a second. Isaac literally seized this opportunity to one-handedly grapple Crash by his skull and throw him into the side of a building like a javelin.

Stuck to the brick wall and with the wind knocked out of him, Crash barely had time to react when he saw the wolfman already giving chase to him. Inescapably, Isaac barraged Crash's abdomen with a flurry of golden punches, causing the bandicoot to sink deeper in the building's wall. Changing pace again, Isaac grabbed Crash's head once more and began to fly along the side of the building, excruciatingly dragging the marsupial's cranium through the crumbling structure's bricks. Along with the many bricks, Crash felt his head snap a metal flagpole in half, resulting in a goofy smile to rip across his face from the surge of pain.

Holding the dazed and confused bandicoot by the neck, Isaac pulled him off the building and flung him with full force across the city. Crash flew like a meteor through Chicago, tearing through a billboard and ultimately landing in the fifth floor of a parking garage (like the ones at the airport). Crash had painfully flown into the side of a sedan, pushing the car into another pick-up truck.

Crash slowly stood to his feet, holding his bleeding forehead. Laughing lightly through the pain in his ribs, he said to no one, "That wasn't so bad. Maybe he's takin a bre—"

Omega Isaac exploded from the pavement floor next to Crash, grabbing the bandicoot by his ankle and hurling him into the side of a truck. Picking Crash up by his hair, Isaac threw a punch into his face that sent him careening into another parked car. Before Crash had a chance to respond, he was being lifted up over the wolfman's head and thoroughly slammed him into a cement pillar of the parking garage, cracking it from the collision.

Crash screamed in agony as blood left his mouth. Staring into Isaac's livid golden eyes, Crash suddenly developed the will to react to Isaac's next attack. Isaac had meant to plant his fist into the wounded marsupial's stomach, but it had been nimbly caught by Crash's hand. With all his might, Crash sent his other fisted hand into Isaac's face, causing the wolfman to fly back into a black SUV.

Peeling himself off the pillar, Crash ran toward Isaac, and both combatants exchanged a series of punches and kicks. Isaac blocked Crash's punch and threw a kick, of which Crash dodged and countered with two chops to Isaac's head. Isaac received those blows and threw his palm into Crash's chest, temporarily knocking the bandicoot off-balance. However, Crash quickly regained himself and sent two fists across Isaac's face. Seizing an opportunity to pull of his signature spin-move, Crash's tornado-like form repeatedly punched the wolfman across his face until he flew back into another parked car. Enraged from those attacks, Isaac swiftly landed his foot in Crash's yellow belly. Stunned from this attack, Crash didn't anticipate the elbow that crashed into his face. Next, he felt himself being lifted up once more, but this time he was harshly thrown into the ground, where it gave way to the floor below him.

Inexplicably, right as Crash fell through the car garage's floor, he felt the golden wolfman driving both of his fists into the his body, greatly augmenting the speed of his descent. This, in turn, caused Crash to proverbially crash through another floor of the garage and then another until they both reached the base floor, where Isaac scooped Crash off the ground and hurled him with all of his might.

Consciousness slowly losing him, Crash felt his body crash through the wall of the parking garage, flying out into the city until he collided into a row of abandoned cars in a random street's traffic. The cars flew up from coming in contact with the marsupial's body, eventually falling back down onto a heaping pile over the bandicoot.

Isaac had watched the scene unfold with stern eyes. Concentrating as hard as he could, he could still feel a foolishly stubborn life force pulsating from the faraway wreckage. He _had_ to make sure Crash was squashed from existence…

Up above, a helicopter was capturing the battle via news camera. It zoomed in to focus on Isaac dashing through the air toward the car pile up, stopping just meters in front of it. Isaac patiently floated above the street, awaiting Crash's reprisal. And then, he heard a roar from inside the wreckage of cars.

The many cars that were stacked up suddenly exploded into the air. Isaac began powering up his Lunar Form, which acted as a protective bubble so as to avoid being hit by one of the flying cars. At the center of the outburst of vehicles was a very much wounded Crash, floating above the ground with a white aura of light swirling around him. As the cars flew in every possible direction, Crash drifted forward with his clenched fists at his sides, an unhealthy rage in his eyes. Isaac drifted forward as well, powering up with every second.

The floating fighters soon met in the middle, slamming each other with various attacks. Isaac drove his fist into Crash's nose, who replied with a punch to the wolfman's jaw. Isaac then swept his leg under Crash's own and followed up with a powerful fist drilling into the bandicoot's chest. Crash quickly recovered and kicked Isaac square is his chest and then received a punch from Isaac again. Shortly after the hit, Crash spun around and let his foot sweep Isaac's face.

Like lightning, Isaac had caught Crash's foot after being hit by it and hurled the bandicoot high into the air behind him. Crash rolled through the air until graciously regaining his composure near the top of a building still in construction, judging by its bare-bones design of red, metal support beams. Crash already spotted Isaac dashing toward him at hedgehog-speed. Very precisely, Crash threw his fist at the same time Isaac did, resulting in both of their fists colliding with each other. It didn't end there; they simultaneously threw their other fists, elbows, and feet, all resulting in the same constant product until, finally, Omega Isaac was quick enough to ram his fist into Crash's throat, drawing blood from the hero's mouth. In the blink of an eye, Isaac had forced Crash down onto a horizontal support beam of the incomplete building. Isaac began relentlessly pulverizing Crash's body with one of his golden fists, causing streaks of blood to leak down the fallen hero's chin. Feebly, Crash held up his hands to possibly ward off the unending barrage of strikes, but to no avail. Over and over, Isaac brought down his fist into the bandicoot's midsection, obtaining a serving of his revenge for each strike that dared to shatter his ribs. He began to strike Crash's head a few times, hearing the reassuring sound of skull clanging against metal with each punch. That red metal beam Crash was helplessly laying on was obviously beginning to bend out of shape from Isaac's repeated assault. Striking Crash's body many more times, Isaac watched as the bandicoot's protesting arms and legs lazily fell to the sides of the metal beam, his neck soon going limp as well. In between strikes, Isaac soon realized that his revenge was finally complete. Even being this close to the bandicoot, Isaac felt no life-force pulsing from within Crash whatsoever.

Isaac grabbed Crash by the throat with one hand, lifted the limp bandicoot into the air, and used his other hand to dish out a wide, yellow wave of Mojo that blasted the bandicoot away, screaming as loud as he could, "DIE!" When Isaac's fatal wave of energy ceased, whatever was left of Crash was at the other end of Chicago, Illinois.

* * *

_I said I was sorry! Stop hitting me with your beard-fist!_

**Chuck Norris:** Then say it!

_The only one who can ever come close to having your godly strength is…is Rare Akuma—now stop hitting me!_

**Chuck Norris:** My work here is done.

_Whew, so on the next chapter, the legends will unite to take on the great Omega Isaac themselves. It will be a long and tiring battle between the outmatched heroes and powered-up wolfman, so I thought it was best to split it up in two parts. Will the others be able to defeat Isaac, or at least hold their own against him? Find out in both installments of **Legends United!**_


	89. Legends United

**Chapter 89: Legends United**

Wiping the little amount of blood from his mouth, Isaac Bifford felt like a heavy burden had been lifted off of him, and an even heavier one had been placed right back on his shoulders. He felt like had crossed some unknown chasm into complete villainy. Now, he had the urge to exterminate the rest of the city, including those other pathetic heroes. Was this how his master Draksin felt on a daily basis?

Meanwhile, Coco and Crunch had taken to the skies shortly after the battle between Isaac and Crash started. Very soon, they both found it difficult to keep up with the dueling bandicoot and wolfman. For approximately ten minutes, Coco and Crunch explored the city's many abandoned and/or destroyed avenues from the sky via Mojo Flight ability. On the ground, the other heroes had split into two groups and "borrowed" two pickup trucks, using the wide space in the back of the vehicles to easily transport each other through the destroyed and derelict portion of downtown Chicago. Peaches, Daisy, Yoshi, and Toad had taken another vehicle to drive in the opposite direction to safety. Meanwhile, Micayla had hitched a ride in the back of one of the heroes' acquired pickup trucks, not wanting to drive away from whatever fate had certainly doomed Crash.

Driven by Jak and Murray, the two trucks steadily followed whatever direction Crunch and Coco were flying in. Bumpily riding in the back of the truck, Micayla took her gaze off of the war-torn road that passed underneath the vehicle and watched the two bandicoots flying above them at such high altitudes. Briefly, she recognized the flying blonde one to be Crash's sister and wondered if the red-furred bandicoot was another relative of his. Her thoughts were halted suddenly after her truck hit a large pothole in the road, causing everyone else riding in the back to jolt uncomfortably.

"Whoa, watch it!" Ratchet shouted, regaining his bearings.

"Easy on the wheels, sport," Mario complained to their driver, Murray.

Murray responded cautiously, "This road's a little rough. Hold tight!"

Meanwhile, in the truck behind Murray's vehicle, Jak was doing his best to keep his vehicle steady as well. He figured that they must be entering one of the areas that the wolfman Isaac had struck first upon arriving in Chicago. Seeing a few unavoidable craters in the street ahead, Jak called back to everyone riding in the back, "Hold on, guys! It's about to get seriously bumpy!"

Jak wasn't kidding; a series of severe bumps rocked the resilient heroes, but their focus was solely on locating Isaac by any means necessary. Finally, after following Murray onto an expressway, the heroes spotted a large explosion off to the side near the base of a building. Murray and Jak had both stopped on an overpass, taking a moment to observe the explosion of what looked like a plethoric amount of cars in the distance. The many cars seemed to be flying up in the air from some silver glowing source on the ground.

The drivers and passengers sitting in the backs of the trucks bounded out of their respective vehicles and stood on the overpass, trying to get a better view of the faraway scene. On closer inspection, the heroes, including Crunch and Coco, could see that it was Crash who was glowing in the middle of the explosion of cars. He seemed to be slowly drifting forward to a much bigger figure—Isaac, of course.

Next, the examining heroes watched from their remote location as Crash and Isaac exchanged an insane amount of blows with each other, neither of them bothering to block even one strike. Suddenly, Isaac managed to grab Crash's leg and mightily sling the bandicoot in the heroes' direction. Up above, Crash went rocketing through the air, past the heroes' position. The bandicoot managed to stop himself from colliding into an incomplete building still under construction; he also didn't seem to notice his allies cheering him on down below. One thing the other heroes didn't quite notice was Isaac's hyper-speed movement, which looked like a golden blur as he collided with Crash, both combatants beginning to match blow-for-blow like two competitive rams.

Standing on the street next to Cayla, Coco watched in labored suspense to see who would gain the upper hand first; the outcome was most upsetting. Every hero watched in horror as Isaac forcefully planted Crash down on one of the red metal support beams of the building and repeatedly slam his fist into the bandicoot's body. He did this to the fallen marsupial's body for forty-five seconds straight. Placing a hand over her mouth, Coco barely had the will to watch Crash's arms lazily fall to the sides of the metal beam. The same terrified effect seemed to be taking hold over the rest of the heroes as well.

Still watching the wolfman punch Crash's lights out, Bentley exclaimed, "How much more of that can he take?"

Before Coco knew it, something Mojo-related subconsciously told her that Crash's life force was completely drained. Her brother's life had faded right before her eyes—in other words, she had watched him die. After a few more senseless punches, Isaac lifted Crash's ragdoll like body and blasted him away with a solid Mojo Wave, sending the bandicoot flying away like a meteor.

"CRASH!" Coco exclaimed.

Staring in disbelief, Jak uttered, "Don't tell me he's…"

In awe like everyone else, Crunch solemnly confirmed, "…He is." Suddenly, he noticed Coco preparing to fly off at a running start. Quickly, he grabbed her by the arm, sternly reprimanding her, _"No,_ Coco. You can't fight him alone!"

In a deadly fit of rage, Coco retaliated, "I'm not going after _him!_ I'm gonna go after Crash!"

Crunch responded just as durably, "Isaac's about to come after _us_ in a minute! We're gonna need you here with us—lord knows you're second to Crash in skill!"

Coco said nothing to this. She just drooped her head in sadness. Meanwhile, an angered Micayla yelled, "Don't tell me you guys are cutting your losses already! We have to go see if Crash is okay—!"

"Just go home," Coco darkly told her off, giving Cayla a sideways glare.

Initially hurt by Coco's command, Cayla then countered, "Wait, Crash is my friend, too! I wanna help him…"

Coco suddenly snapped at the lioness, "Go away! There's nothing you can do for him!"

Keira saw this as an opportunity to smoothly intervene into the conversation, "At least not right now, um…"

"Cayla," Cayla supplied.

"Right, Cayla," Keira continued. "We'll have to worry about finding Crash later. Right now, you need to get to safety."

Pointing up in the sky, Sora alerted everyone, "Looks like Isaac's already making his way down here! Get ready!"

Indeed, it was true. Isaac landed on the overpass in front of the other heroes, a deadly glower upon his furry mug. He had powered down to his regular, brown-furred form. He wasted no time with the greetings and announced, "I have killed Crash Bandicoot. Now, I'm only going to give the rest of you one chance to leave this city and never show your faces in my presence again! Understood?"

Link nobly drew his Master Sword and Hylian Shield, returning Isaac's glower. He courageously shouted, "Not on your life, wolfman!"

Following Link's outcry, Sora, Riku, and Kairi had drawn their Keyblades, followed by Donald with his staff and Goofy with his shield. With Clank strapped to his back, Ratchet twirled his Constructo Pistol in his hand; Crunch and Murray both cracked their knuckles in battle preparation. Following the bandicoot's and hippo's movements, Mario and Luigi popped a few bones in their necks as well. (It seems Luigi has nearly the same exaggerated fighting capabilities as his brother.) Bentley began initiating his painfully slow mech-suit transformation process, impatiently drumming his fingers on the arm of his wheel chair. Jak and Daxter got in their traditional Demolition Duo fighting stance, with Jak bouncing on his feet like a boxer and Daxter graciously concealing himself behind his best friend's head. Next to them was Keira, who was readily charging two rounds of Yellow Eco in her hands. Sly Cooper twirled his cane around in his hand before swiping the air, all the while giving Isaac a fierce stare. However, his fierce look was only beaten by Coco, who stood at the head of the group, clenching both fists at her sides.

Isaac grunted at their foolishness. "Have it your way. I won't be holding back this time."

* * *

"Oh, man, this place is a war-zone," Jeycko commented on the tormented section of the city, floating above Chicago's skyline.

General Eurathaccus reminisced, "Yes, this certainly does bring back memories of the war…"

"Okay, whose and what war did you fight in, again?" Jeycko inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"Ah, pretty much all of 'em," the General answered nonchalantly. "The Twilight Realm can have some pretty riveting wars, you know."

"Like when?"

"Ah, you know…there was the one when Draksin, Reiden, and the wolf-guy attacked," Eurathaccus replied. "That one was pretty intense."

"Yeah, we were all in that one." Shaking his head, Jeycko got back to business, "Anyway, we need to make sure our friends are okay. But where to look…?"

Suddenly, an explosion ignited a nearby part of the city below. The general quickly alarmed, "I think we found our grunts!"

* * *

In his Lunar Form, Omega Isaac grabbed Sora's Keyblade before it hit him and paused to notice the barely discernible similarities between him and Draksin. This must be the troublesome son Draksin had told him about before…

Powerfully kicking the boy into an approaching Sly Cooper, Isaac dodged two slashes from Kairi and Riku, delivering an uppercut to the silver-haired Keyblader's jaw and an unregulated kick to the side of the princess' head. He obviously didn't quite care who he injured at this point. The day would end with him killing them all under Draksin's orders, anyway. And very mysteriously, Isaac had the notion that the murder would oddly make him feel…good.

Hearing Bentley and his mech-suit charge at him from behind, Isaac wheeled around to block a karate chop from the turtle and sling the hulking mech-suit into a random car. Going on the offensive, Isaac dashed forward to punch Luigi square in the face, elbow Murray in the stomach, bring the back of his fist into Keira's cheekbone, punch Jak in the chin, block Link's sword slash and kick the boy dead in his face, backhand Ratchet and Clank into an abandoned car, catch Sly's swinging cane and kick the Cooper hard in the ribs, roundhouse kick Mario across the street, block a kick from Coco and swing her into an approaching Keira, land three lighting-fast kicks into Sora's, Donald's, and Goofy's abdomens, plant a heavy fist into Crunch's stomach and high-kick him in the jaw, elbow Jak in the ribs from behind and whirl around to backhand him, leg-sweep Bentley and his mech-suit and stamp his foot down into the suit's control center, throw back a surprisingly high kick into Link's face, fiercely plant a fist in Mario's gut, dodge a white blast of fire that seemed to hail from Riku's hand and slug the boy twice across the face, finishing him off with a kick that sent him skidding into one of the white pickup trucks where a raven-haired girl hid—

That girl…wearing the blue beanie hat and sweater. She looked incredibly familiar. Something was screwy.

Cayla had been fearfully watching the battle unfold behind one of the trucks. She felt an icy chill when Omega Isaac's gaze froze on her. For a second, she thought he was going to ditch his fight with the rest of the heroes and come after her.

Without looking, Isaac rammed his fist into an approaching Murray's face, instantly dropping the hippopotamus. Isaac couldn't take his eyes off of the girl. It was impossible…she looked just like…

"Naomi…?" Isaac voiced himself, loud enough for her to hear.

"What the—? No, it's CAYLA!" Cayla irately shouted from her hiding spot. "Why does everyone keep calling me that?"

Isaac deciphered that the girl didn't recognize him at all. What kind of cruel torture _was_ this? The woman who had spurned his love was standing right in front of him…but it wasn't her. Isaac had a feeling Draksin knew all about this, so he made a mental note to have a chat with him when this massacre was over. Suddenly, a metal object had been slugged across his face, followed by another. Gaining his bearings, Isaac found out that Crunch had been easily landing blows with his new metallic hand. Also, it seemed that that metal hand of his was madly punching the air in various directions, as if it had a mind of its own.

Regarding his malfunctioning hand, Crunch growled, "Not now, stupid arm! I'm tryna kick some butt, here!"

Isaac recovered and punched Crunch square in the jaw. Crunch also recuperated quickly and threw his natural fist at Isaac, who blocked it adeptly. Both Isaac and Crunch locked hands and commenced a duel of raw strength. As the road of the overpass began to crumple beneath their feet, Isaac powered up his Lunar Form, a gold aura of light swirling around his body. Feeling Isaac take the upper-hand, Crunch powered up his Mojo as well, desperately trying to overpower the wolfman. As both of their energy caps increased, the road began shaking violently, daring to cave under everyone's feet.

Still locked in their battle of strength, Crunch and Isaac glared lethal daggers at each other. Baring his teeth furiously, Crunch uttered, "Why did you kill him?"

Isaac only returned the burgundy bandicoot's hateful scowl.

"You don't even have a reason!" Crunch shouted.

Isaac decided to lowly retort, "And he didn't have a reason to live, so I exterminated him."

"And what about us?" Crunch spat, squeezing Isaac's hands tighter and pushing the wolfman back a bit. "I'm guessin' we don't have a reason either. We've all seen your power. Why don't you just go ahead and waste us like you did to Crash?"

Isaac snarled before saying, "My pleasure!"

Head-butting Crunch so hard in his nose that he promptly let go of Isaac's hands, the wolfman then sent a lethal punch to Crunch's gut that sent him flying like a rocket off of the overpass and into the side of a nearby business building. Stuck inside the crater he had made in the building's concrete side, Crunch unconsciously and motionlessly resided there. The other heroes watched Isaac's prominent display of strength with wide eyes and gaping mouths. They had a legitimate reason to be genuinely distressed, seeing as how Isaac was hitting ten times as hard as he did the first time they met.

Observing the damage, Daxter shrieked from Jak's shoulder, "Geez-a-Lou! Can't ya give us a handicap?"

Isaac responded coldly, "If that's another word for 'coffin,' then yes."

Ratchet suddenly wised up and shouted, "Eat this!"

Isaac felt hot pellets ricochet off his back. Turning around, he instinctively shielded his face from more shots from Ratchet's Constructo Pistol, receiving a mild amount of pain from each shot. Effortlessly, Isaac held out his hand and shot a Mojo Blast at Ratchet and Clank. The surrounding heroes ducked and covered while the duo received the blast head-on; they were pushed through the air like a fast-moving buckshot until they painfully crashed through the window of a nearby building.

"RATCHET!" Coco yelled in horror. "CLANK!"

Isaac watched the fear in the remaining heroes' eyes. The way each of them trembled in such a terrified fashion, save the long-eared one named Jak. He only stood with uncertainty in his eyes. Isaac admired the young warrior's resilience, but in the end, he would have to die with the rest of the heroes. Yes, Isaac was fully prepared to obey his orders.

Standing in front of his allies, Jak sullenly stated, "It's been a fun ride, guys."

"This can't be it…" Coco muttered, no sooner disbelieving her own words. "Isn't this the part when Crash swoops in and saves us all?"

A little woozy, Murray dizzily stated with a hint of determination, "The Murray…can still fight!"

Still reeling from the previous kick to her head, Kairi gasped, "Sora…I-I don't wanna die!"

Breathing hard as well, Sora replied with far less determination than usual, "I know. We'll…we'll find a way to win!"

Panicking uncontrollably, Luigi stated, "Whoa, now, I'm not in the mood for dying either! I just wanted to back you up, Mario, not throw my life away at the hands of some stupid, stinkin' wolfman! For goodness' sake, I just got engaged to Daisy…"

Mario gave his brother an evil smirk. "Sucks to be you, pal. I actually don't mind dyin' all that much, considering Peaches is gonna find out that ring I gave her is counterfeited."

Raising both hands as if he were holding up a beach ball, Isaac charged a substantial amount of energy into hands. The energy formed into a bright, golden ball above his head. Once again seeing the fear in every hero's eyes, Isaac hesitated to deliver his attack momentarily. No, he _had_ to do this. He'd given them all a chance to run away, but they idiotically stayed here to die. Now he had to crush them, and he'd do it without a single regret. However, one look into Micayla's frightened eyes made his decision impossible. Maybe he _wasn't_ fully prepared to carry out his orders…

Coco and Crunch felt the massive flow of Mojo that had gathered into that energy ball above Isaac's head. Giving each other fearful looks, Coco and Crunch both surmised that not everyone would survive a direct attack, especially not Crash's new friend, Cayla.

Isaac mentally cursed himself for the decision he had come to. With his eyes closed, he tried not to think about the girl who looked just like Naomi as he thrust the powerful Mojo Blast onto the ground right in front of him—in lieu of directly at the heroes. The ensuing explosion caused the overpass' concrete road to completely crumble underneath everyone's feet, including his own.

A few minutes later, when the smoke had cleared, Isaac descended to the ground below the overpass in front of a large pile of rubble. He crossed his arms at the sight. He doubted very many of them survived such a fall. Isaac had no desire to play search-dog and make sure that everyone was dead, so he decided he would just finish his work with the city and await his master's arrival.

However, after turning away from the rubble, Isaac nearly gasped in surprise at what he saw standing in a large group on the roof of a short apartment building. Not only were the heroes (plus Cayla) unscathed from his energy attack, but they were standing atop the building with the blue people that he recognized as Jeycko and Eurathaccus. He decided not to express his astonishment.

"I see you're all good at staying alive."

* * *

Meanwhile, at the other end of Chicago's expansive downtown, a bloodied, orange, and furry creature lay in a wet heap on his back. He was lying in the center of a pool of water; he had ultimately crashed right through a massive water tanker, spilling its contents all over the streets. Before hitting the tanker, he'd collided through three different buildings until finally landing near a gas station. He felt no pain, however. He didn't feel anything at the moment.

A gentle wind softly ruffled Crash's dirty pelt. His head was lazily laid to the side on the wet concrete, eyes closed in tranquility. Both of his pointy bandicoot ears were deflated against the ground. Dry streams of blood stained his furry chin. His blue pants were torn asunder at the hems. His black Chuck Taylors were tattered and loose on his feet. Scraped portions of his body were littered across his arms, chest, and legs.

Not a single breath escaped the slightly opened mouth of Crash Bandicoot. Everything besides his wavering fur was perfectly still. After all these years of defending the planet from evil scientists daring to take over the world, a few insane aliens trying to blow up the planet, and an even some evil witchdoctor masks, Crash was finally at peace. Since he had slept on his back forty percent of his life, death was something the bandicoot would enjoy getting used to.


	90. Legends United II

**Chapter 90: Legends United II**

Jak yelled, "Everyone—MOVE!"

Everyone standing on the apartment building's rooftop quickly dove away from the roof's edge, narrowly avoiding a golden Mojo Blast from an impatient Isaac Bifford's hand. While part of the building was instantly destroyed, Jak and Daxter were unfortunate enough to be caught standing over a crumpling region of the rooftop, where it gave way and forced them to fall into a pile of rubble in the destroyed apartment below.

Keira called down to the debris, "Jak! Are you okay?"

Suddenly, a black-clawed hand erupted from the center of the rubble, followed by a very ticked-off, pale-skinned Jak. Riding on Jak's shoulder, Daxter brushed some dirt off his own fuzzy shoulder and screamed, "That's it! I officially HATE that guy! Dark Jak, will you do the honors of kicking his face in?"

Jak roared in response, "AAAAAR, ISAAC!"

Smiling calmly, Daxter cooed, "Aw, your first word. They grow up so fast…"

Dark Jak leapt from the destroyed portion of the apartment building and landed on the street with a few bolts of purple lighting flickering from his hands and feet. Breathing much like a wild animal as it spotted its kill, Jak stood with his arms loosely hanging in front of him.

Ten feet away, Isaac watched the transformed hero with genuine disinterest. "So there's a demon inside you, as well? You should have called him out sooner."

Daxter frowned at Isaac and offhandedly told Dark Jak, "D'ya believe this guy? Hurry up and 'dead' this chump, Jak!"

Jak gladly held out both palms and charged a Dark Strike, shooting off the Dark Eco projectile at Isaac. The wolfman easily flipped over the blast, landing in front of Jak as the misguided Dark Strike blew another nearby apartment building to smithereens. Isaac threw his golden fist across Jak's cheekbone; this didn't seem to faze the dark hero in the slightest as he reacted by digging his claws across Isaac's furry chest. Grunting in slight anguish, Isaac quickly vaulted backward to avoid another attack from Jak's claws.

From the half-destroyed rooftop, Sora cheered on, "Alright, go Jak!"

"THAT'S what his dark side looks like?" Kairi staggered, agape in a mixture of horror and more horror. "Keira's right—he's a monster!"

Snapping his fingers, Link figured, "Oh, that's right. You were still under Mavo's toxin when Jak did it the first time. Just don't do anything to antagonize him, and maybe we'll stay on his good side."

Kairi rolled her eyes and stated, "I guess every tough guy on the planet has to have an alter-ego."

"Alter-ego…?" Sora suddenly thought of something. Giving Jeycko a quick glance, Sora looked back at Link and smirked.

A little disturbed, The Hylian boy scrunched his face at Sora, uneasily asking, "Can I help you…?"

Still holding his mischievous smile, Sora asked, "Link, what do ya say we politely ask Jeycko if he can help us change into our own 'alter-egos'?"

Suddenly catching on to Sora's idea, Link grinned as well. However, he shook his head, rejecting part of the idea, "That's good thinking, Zora, but I only use my wolf form to fight large amounts of enemies. And I don't think I'd have any better luck fighting Isaac as a wolf, seeing as how I don't even have any Precursors light enough to ride on my back and lend me their powers."

Raising an eyebrow, Sora shrugged and said, "If that's what you want to do. I, on the other hand, am gonna let Roxas take a whack at it…"

Meanwhile, Dark Jak and Isaac were still pummeling each other, but once again, the only combatant who seemed to be retaining any kind of pain was Jak, who was slowing down by each punch to the head. Finally, Isaac finished Jak and Daxter off with a powerful kick that sent them flying into the brick wall of an adjacent building. Jak had slid down the wall to the ground in a defeated sitting position, now reverted back to his normal Eco-less form with Daxter uncomfortably squashed beneath him.

Just as Isaac held up a hand to summon a Mojo Blast that would finish him for good, a flash of light erupted from the sky. Whirling around to see the source of where the light was coming from, he took note of the brilliant column of light that stretched from the half-destroyed apartment building's rooftop to the cloudy sky up above. While Isaac was still distracted from the light, Coco had flown over to Jak and Daxter to provide much needed assistance in their recovery.

Once the light dissipated, Isaac heard Jeycko call down to him, "Sorry, your hairiness, but Sora didn't exactly get the desired effect from the Twilight Realm's light." Holding up something small and furry in his right hand for everyone to see, Jeycko introduced with a hysterical laugh, "Look, everybody! It's Lion Sora!"

Yeah, that small and furry bundle was Sora…in lion form. His fur was dark gray and his hairdo had remained brown and pointy; his blue eyes reflected annoyance as Jeycko held him up by the scruff of his neck. In fact, this act enraged the little cub because he started hissing and meowing something fierce.

Jeycko laughed again, "Oh, man, I think he's trying to tell me something. You wanna seal some Keyholes, little guy?"

"Toss 'em over yonder!" Luigi called to Jeycko, holding out his hands with a cheesy smile.

Reeling back his arm to throw the angry little cub, Jeycko replied, "Comin' at ya!"

Sora flew through the air until he landed in the gloved hands of Luigi, who held him like a trophy and said with admiration, "Ho-ho, people would love you back in Italy! Mario, check this little guy out!"

Mario waved his hand indifferently, quickly rejecting, "Sorry, I hate cats."

"Let me see the little fur-ball!" Murray shouted, also holding out his hands.

"Comin' right up!" Luigi said, tossing the lion cub across the rooftop once more.

"Gotcha!" After catching a clearly peeved Lion Sora, Murray swung him around a bit, causing the cub to screech in irritation. Then the hippo maneuvered Sora around his back to throw him towards Goofy, yelling, "Alley-oop!"

Goofy caught Sora and began tossing him up and down while saying, "This brings back such good memories, Sora!"

Kairi clapped and shouted, "Goofy! Throw him over this way!"

"You're the boss," Goofy said with a shrug, tossing the extremely ticked off cub through the air again.

Kairi caught Sora under his furry arms and screamed rather girlishly before declaring, "Omigosh, you're just the cutest thing in the world! Yes you are! _Yes you are!"_

Somehow, Sora didn't seem too angry about this. In fact, his infuriated demeanor had dissolved into a calm, satisfied, almost crooked grin. Riku and Keira walked over to Kairi, also observing the new cuddly version of the Chosen Keyblader. As Kairi gently rubbed her face on Sora's fuzzy cheek (which caused him to purr up a storm), Keira began scratching at his underbelly, pondering out loud with an amused smile, "I wonder if Daxter could ever be this cute if he didn't talk…"

Riku, however, was not impressed. With his arms crossed, he huffed, "Way to go, Sora. I bet you planned for this to happen, didn't you? You're such an attention hog!"

"Attention _kitty,"_ Kairi corrected.

"Lighten up," Keira told the envious teen. "We could all use some cuteness before we die horribly."

Still not amused, Riku injected his next statement with sarcasm. "Yeah, cuz he's so adorable with his little ears, little nose, little whiskers…oh, and is that a little wenis I see?"

Sora's eyes bulged. He quickly used his tail to conceal whatever part of his feline body he thought Riku was mentioning.

"Enough of this nonsense!" Isaac suddenly bellowed from the ground. "Lion cub or not, all of you must die!"

The golden aura swirling Isaac began to intensify, and just like that, he launched from his grounded position like a bottle rocket toward the heroes still standing on the rooftop, murder in his golden eyes. He thought to himself that maybe the quicker he got this deed over with, the less time he would have to hesitate.

The remaining heroes watched in alarm as the crazed wolfman dashed toward them at incredible speeds. If all else failed, Jeycko was prepared to teleport them to a safer location. However, this wasn't needed.

In a burst of white light, Coco managed to fly in the air between Isaac and the rooftop that held her friends. Giving Isaac the nastiest of glares, the bandicootess vehemently declared, "I won't let you hurt any more of my friends!"

Isaac returned Coco's glare. "This isn't anything personal, but you all must share the same fate as Crash Bandicoot."

"That was my brother you killed!" From this statement, Isaac's eyelids briefly expanded before narrowing again. Coco yelled, "It's just you and me, now!"

Isaac powered down to his basic form, crossing his arms as he did so. Giving her a grudging look, he unsympathetically conceded, "The order in which you all perish doesn't concern me."

Coco clenched her fists in anger, focusing on the nearby sources of Mojo and pulling the micro-sized bits of energy into her body. Moving some of the breezy dreadlocks from his face, Isaac mentally commended the young bandicootess on her mastery of (what he called) Ki. He noted how flawlessly she collected her energy in such a quick and efficient way, unlike her brother, who wildly drew in power at wavering intervals.

Isaac needed to know before the battle started, "What is your name?"

Still powering up immensely, Coco returned, "Coco Bandicoot. Don't tell me you're trying to get friendly all of a sudden."

"Not at all. I just wanted to know what to put on your tombstone."

At that comment, Coco burst forward. Isaac swiftly flew leftward, dodging her incoming kick and grabbed her ankle. With a moderate amount of force, he slung her downward to the street, where she nimbly landed on her feet. Isaac met her on the pavement to dish out a punch that was meant for her skull. Coco quickly ducked and spun to deliver a roundhouse kick; Isaac blocked this kick by holding out his own kneecap and quickly thrusting his palm into Coco's nose.

Coco stumbled backward, slightly dazed from the counterattack. She felt Isaac sweep her legs from under her, leading to herself falling harshly on the street. Next, Isaac planted his foot on Coco's abdomen, inhibiting any movement. A little winded, the determined bandicootess raised her hand and fired a Mojo Blast at Isaac's face, freeing herself instantly. Jumping back to her feet, Coco laced her fist with Mojo and powerfully threw it into Isaac's gut while the wolfman was still reeling from her last attack.

Meanwhile, on the rooftop, Cayla closely watched the battle while the others' attention was divided by the cuddly Lion Sora. Sly Cooper suddenly walked up next to her, reading her worried expression. He asked, "You and Crash were good friends?"

"We just met today," Cayla brushed off. "And just like that, he and half my city are blown away." Silence fell between them as they watched Coco and Isaac battle like martial artists on the ground. With a small, blank smile, Cayla commented, "I don't think she likes me all that much."

Sly perked up, "Who, Coco? Don't take anything personal from her. She's barely had any time to mourn over her brother, ya know…"

Coco received a sharp jab to her back after Isaac managed to maneuver behind her. She then felt a ruthless hand spin her around to face him, where another fisted hand callously met her stomach. Isaac finished her off while she was bent over in pain with an elbow-drive to the back of her head. Now on her hands and knees, Coco panted heavily as she heard the dominant wolfman say lowly, "You fought well, little girl."

Coughing, Coco grumbled with an annoyed tone, "Gee, you ask for my name, and then you call me 'little girl.' Real smooth…"

Ignoring her snide comment, Isaac said, "If it's any consolation, I'd say you're only a little weaker than your brother, Crash. I see that you train hard, Coco, but like I said before, you must share the same fate as your brother."

Coco suddenly looked up at Isaac with fire in her eyes. "No…I have to beat you! For my brother's sake, I'll take you DOWN!"

Like a random strike of lightning, Isaac received a fist across his face, heavily stunned by Coco's surprisingly thunderous attack. Not only was it quick, but it actually hurt him, unlike her previous attacks. Next thing he knew, he received more and more punches to the head, losing his focus on the battle at hand.

"No!" Coco yelled angrily, dealing more blows to Isaac's face. "I won't let you win!"

From the heroes' rooftop, Keira cheered, "You can do it, Coco!"

Murray also rooted for her, "Yeah, rip that wannabe a new one!"

Even General Eurathaccus shouted, "Don't hold back, soldier! It's in the bag!"

Frustrated beyond belief, Isaac finally regained himself enough to catch Coco's next punch. Tightly compressing her hand within his, Isaac followed up with a harsh head-butt to Coco's skull. While the girl was dazed, Isaac slammed his fist across her face and delivered a crippling uppercut to her jaw that made her airborne. Flying at lightning speed behind the bandicootess, Isaac threw his foot into her back and grappled her by the ankle to hurl her back down into the street, where she hit the top of a car with a loud, dull clunk. Isaac calmly landed on the street next to the dented car that held the wounded bandicootess.

Coco carelessly slid off the dented car's roof, wobbly landing on her feet, and then face-planting on the street. Losing consciousness, Coco breathlessly uttered, "We need you, big brother…"

* * *

Back on the other side of Chicago near the gas station, Crash's corpse was still in the exact same spot as before. His body was still lying over a wide puddle of water. His mouth was still agape. His arms and legs were still sprawled out. Dry blood still stained various patches of his fur. His eyes were still peacefully closed…

In those last few moments of getting pummeled by Isaac Bifford, Crash soon figured out three things. One: he was in a world of pain. Two: he was in a galaxy of pain, if that exists. Three: he had certainly been bested by the relentless werewolf. And he most certainly knew death was imminent. Was he scared? At first, yes. He was mainly concerned with what would happen to his friends and family. Isaac could easily wipe them out. Let's not forget about Draksin. Crash couldn't begin to imagine how powerful that man could be, seeing as how he failed to even ruin Isaac's day.

But then calm feelings had taken over Crash as his immense agony drifted away. He felt lighter than air. His sight had gradually gone completely white, the sky, the construction site, and even the angrily violent wolfman repeatedly pulverizing his weakening body. And when sweet death had finally taken hold over him, Crash suddenly began to understand that everything was going to be alright. There were always heroes lined up, ready to repel evil doers like Isaac and Draksin. He figured Jak was pretty strong, Link and Sora too, and he had no doubt Bentley could figure something out. Then there was his sister, of course, who nearly matched him in strength and skill. If they and the rest of the heroes failed, however, Crash still had one last ace up his sleeve: Sonic the Hedgehog. That hedgehog's power was unrivalled, especially when powered up in Super mode. Crash still believed he wasn't anywhere near Sonic's level…

Then again, if everyone failed, Crash wouldn't be so lonely in Heaven…

* * *

"Crash, I'm not sure you know what game we're playing," said Kemani, a red-haired bandicootess.

Holding his playing cards closely to his nose, Crash replied in deep concentration, "Hold on, Mom. I'm about to make my next move…"

Kemani smiled and sighed. The two, who both had golden haloes above their heads, were playing cards at a white table. Puffy white clouds surrounded the pair along with a bright, sunny glow. Rolling her eyes with a small grin, Kemani gently coaxed, "Come on, Crash…"

Crash perked up. "Okay, got it! Mom…do you have any fours?"

Shaking her head wearily, Kemani stated, "For the third time, Crash, we're playing poker!"

Smacking his head in realization, Crash nodded fervently and said, "Oh, right! Sorry, sorry, I forgot. Now, Mom…do you have any queens?"

Laughing hopelessly, Kemani put her cards down on the table and suggested, "Let's just talk. So…how's your girlfriend on Earth?"

Sheepishly chuckling, Crash tried to shrug off, "What are you talking about? I don't have a girlfriend…"

"Really? But you're such a handsome boy. There's no way the ladies aren't chasing you around daily!"

Blushing with a toothy smile, Crash replied, "Aw, come on, Mom! Well, of course they chase me around everyday, but I'm not ready to be tied down, yet, you know?"

Kemani smirked deviously. "Not even for a certain girl named Micayla?"

Eyes widening, Crash asked, "H-How'd you know about her?"

"I've got connections."

Crash raised an eyebrow. "Speaking of 'connections', I've seen you twice before. Once in a dream, and then a few days ago in Wumpa City when you helped me and Coco defeat Uka Uka. And right now, I've gotta say that you don't look all that similar to Coco. Dad looks like me—very much like me—so how come you don't look like her?"

Kemani's happy expression turned just a little bit sour as she answered, "That's because your father strayed from the sanctity of our relationship. But that's behind us, now. I forgave him a long time ago, and he's paid for his sins."

Confused, Crash asked, "What d'ya mean 'strayed'?"

"He caused an infidelity, Crash."

"Come again?"

"He was unfaithful."

"What's that?"

"He cheated on me, Crash!"

"Oh," said Crash nonchalantly. Finally, his mother's information seemed to hit him all at once as he shrieked, _"Say wha'?"_

"Yeah, it happened after you were born," Kemani brushed off. "Coco's real mom is in a different part of Heaven…somewhere."

"So where's Dad?"

"He likes to spend a lot of time in the demons' fighting arena. I actually heard he was on his way up here to teach you a lesson."

"Oh boy," Crash fretted. "I think that means he's mad."

Sighing sadly, Kemani replied, "Crash, you're not going to stay here forever. Burnec is coming up here to lend you some of his power before you go back."

Puzzled, Crash asked, "Go back where?"

"To the realm of living, of course."

And just like that, Crash's entire body disappeared from the poker table.

With sadness in her eyes, Kemani smiled and whispered, "Goodbye, Jayzev."


	91. Till I Collapse

_Don't forget—a picture of Crash's father, Burnec, is on my deviantart page. Check it out via my author's profile if you haven't already done so!_

**Chapter 91: Till I Collapse**

Crash was motionlessly lying on his back in some endless room of darkness, experiencing a funny feeling in his stomach. One minute he was conversing with his deceased mother, the next he was alone, lying down in some black abyss. He opened his eyes to see nothing but blackness, so he closed them back again…

Suddenly, a rugged voice yelled to him, "Get up, you worthless trash!"

As his eyes flew back open, Crash felt himself being forcefully pulled to a standing position by someone's grasp. Flabbergasted, he looked up into the angry green eyes of his blonde-haired father, Burnec. The elder bandicoot was in no mood for joking, apparently.

"This is the second time this week I've had to interfere and help your sorry hide out! You don't even deserve to wield my sword!" Burnec shouted, greatly waking up the younger bandicoot. "Some man you are. You can't even take care of your dear little sister, who's dying right now! You make me _sick!"_

"So how's all this verbal abuse gonna help me out, again?" Crash inquired sardonically.

Pretty soon, Crash wished he hadn't said that. Burnec's right hand wrapped around Crash's neck faster than he could say, "Please don't kill me." Scowling at Crash, Burnec started in a deadly whisper and ended in a yell, "You're insolent, stupid, and pretty damn _useless!"_

"I'm sorry!" Crash quickly strained to apologize in a choking voice.

"Remember when you first beat that dragon moron, Reiden? That was when your true power awakened. There's always been a true warrior sleeping within you. I'm here to bring that warrior out again!"

After being mercifully released by his father, Crash rubbed his sore throat and asked, "How are you gonna do that?"

"That's easy, Jayzev. Wake up, first…"

* * *

A gentle wind blew a broken power cable down from the side of the gas station's wall, where it landed on the edge of the water puddle Crash was lying in. A single jolt of electricity later and Crash's eyes flew open. Sitting up instinctively, Crash breathed heavily as he tried to remember where he was.

"What the heck happened…?" Crash whispered, observing the abandoned portion of the city around him. Suddenly, his head throbbed. "OWIE! My head! AAAAAGH!"

After screaming for some time, an orange aura of light exploded around him, blowing away the puddle of water he sat in. The excruciating pain he was experiencing subdued abruptly, and Crash felt an insane amount of energy pouring into him. Standing up, he observed his hands as if they somehow knew what was happening to him.

"Hands," Crash began, "do either of you know why I feel like a super bandicoot?"

Forming his left hand into a crab claw-mouth shape, Crash used his mastery of ventriloquism to answer himself in a high-pitched voice, "Gee, Crash, I'm not sure!"

His right hand suggested in a deeper voice, "Maybe this is what your dad was talking about, Crash. I think he's awakened the warrior inside of you!"

"You're right, Righty!" Crash pointed out. "What do you guys say we go pay a certain wolfman a visit?" Forming his hands into fists, Crash smirked and said, "I'll take that as a yes!"

Then, like an orange cannon ball, Crash took off into the sky, Bifford-bound.

* * *

After getting hit by Isaac (in his regular form) once more, Coco fell flat on her back, numbly losing her grasp of consciousness. From the rooftop, Donald Duck aimed his mystical staff and called down, "Don't give up!"

"Yeah, we've got your back!" Riku yelled, preparing to jump down from the rooftop.

Isaac whirled around and held his hand up toward the heroes attempting to intervene. Summoning a golden ball of energy in his hand, he shouted threateningly, "Stay back, or you're all vaporized!"

"Heck if I care!" Mario screamed, also preparing to leap over the rooftop. He seemed to be in no mood to watch a child get beaten to a pulp.

Isaac shook his head. "Fools."

He fired the lethal energy-made projectile at the heroes, however, he missed his targets. Someone had desperately rammed their shoulder into his side, making his blast's trajectory land into the apartment building's base. Isaac turned around sharply to see an exhausted Jak daring to push him again. Jak failed in his second attempt, instead receiving an elbow to his mouth that rocked his vision. Next, he felt Isaac's wolf-like foot drive into his stomach, causing the hero to tumble backwards on his back.

Meanwhile, the other heroes (minus the precursors) had suffered minor damage when Isaac's energy ball hit the bottom of their building. The half-destroyed edifice had completely crumpled underneath them, causing them all to fall terrifyingly. Rather casually, Jeycko and Eurathaccus continued to hover in the air while the other heroes fell fifty feet. For obvious reasons, Lion Sora was the only one who gracefully landed on his feet. Murray had managed to grab hold of Keira and Micayla before the rooftop caved in along with the rest of the building, mildly protecting them from additional damage. Riku, Bentley, Mario, and Luigi all seemed to take rough landings on and under various pieces of stone blocks. Donald had quickly jumped into Goofy's arms while both of them used the dog-knight's shield to bumpily skid down the plethoric amount of debris like a sleigh. At the same time, Link had grabbed hold of Kairi as soon as they began sliding down the crumpling rooftop. Positioning himself under her, Link painfully took the brunt of the fall, landing on some jagged bricks with a loud thump (and a few clangs from the Hylian Shield mounted on his back). Kairi lazily rolled off of the half-conscious Link to her back, heaving an exhausted sigh next to the Hylian boy. What she didn't see coming next was a screaming raccoon from above plummeting toward her.

Sly landed on the princess with a discomforting, "OOMF!" Shaking his head, the Cooper muttered grouchily, "Not my best landing, but Dad would be proud nonetheless…" Sly's eyes suddenly went into golf ball mode. It wasn't _just_ the simple fact that he had fallen on a helpless girl; his golf ball eyes followed where his left hand was currently located and then a little further upward into the frighteningly furious expression of Kairi. Quickly apologizing, Sly sputtered, "Er—my mistake, Miss Kairi…again…"

Kicking the raccoon off of her, Kairi irately murmured, "This is the second time…"

Recalling his first offense back in Dr. Mavo's darkened lab, Sly affirmed, "I-I swear! It won't happen ag—"

"Guys," Link suddenly interjected, struggling to sit up, "this might be it. I don't see how we'll ever beat Isaac at this rate. Heh…but I'll still fight!" Link used his Master Sword as a crutch to stand up, boldly yelling, "I say we die fighting! Who's with me?"

Mario hazily stood up next to Link, giving him a friendly punch on the shoulder. "Let's go teach that hairy poodle not to mess with my town."

Pretty soon, every hero was standing from the rubble to challenge Isaac for the last time. Joining the tenacious heroes was Crunch, who descended from the sky with Ratchet and Clank slung over his shoulder. Standing at the front was Jak and Daxter, both looking determined to kick some werewolf butt…or most likely die trying. At Jak's side was Coco, barely able to hold herself in a standing position.

Isaac soon realized why the Precursors had chosen this group of heroes to purge the world of him and Draksin. The determination in their eyes was mixed with fear, but they were geared up for one more round of fighting nonetheless. Reluctantly, Isaac held up his hand toward them again, knowing that it was a great waste to wipe out so many capable warriors at once. However, this time he did not hesitate to summon and fire a golden Mojo Blast at them.

Up in the sky, Jeycko had yelled to the General, "Ah, crud—they're done for!"

In a blur of orange, the energy blast strangely exploded halfway between Isaac and the heroes, resulting in a blinding smokescreen that separated the two factions. Once the smoke cleared, everyone—including Isaac himself—gawked at the sight of a certain coughing, wheezing, shirtless bandicoot doubled over with his hands on his knees, hoarsely grumbling to himself, "Doing the 'shield your friends from a deadly explosion' routine…sounded _so_ sane from the air!"

* * *

_Seems like I've been vomitting updates, lately. Oh, well. Call me a bulimic! Unlike a certain someone I know...coughsmartyandthegeekcough._

_On the next chapter, Isaac get's what's coming to him. With the legacy of his father, Burnec, fueling Crash's power, our favorite bandicoot will unleash the super bandicoot from within in **Crash Through You!**_


	92. Crash Through You

**Chapter 92: Crash Through You**

Isaac gawked, "I-Impossible! You're a dead man!"

Ignoring the wolfman's sputtering, Crash turned around and said with a grin to everyone, "Hi." Looking at one particularly mystified girl, Crash greeted sheepishly, "Weird day, huh Cayla?"

With a bit of a dreamlike expression, Cayla responded slowly, "The sky raining used jockstraps would be a weird day. This is just insanity…"

Looking at everyone else's beaten up conditions, Crash surmised with a grin, "Guess I came in the nick of time."

Jak remarked, "Ten minutes ago wouldn't have been so bad, either—"

Coco suddenly yelled, "Where the hell have you been?"

With a deadpan expression on his face, Crash returned dryly, mocking his father, "I missed you, too, 'dear little sis', or should I say 'half-sis'. Dad wouldn't want to hear you swearing like that, you know."

Confused, she asked, "What?"

"I'll tell ya later—right now, I gotta take care of tall, mean, and vicious," Crash replied, pointing his thumb at the completely baffled werewolf.

Isaac interrupted, "I killed you! I watched your life slip—how?"

Crash shrugged and said, "You'd be surprised by the chance a single jolt of electricity would jumpstart your entire heart. You ever seen that movie Crank 2: High Voltage?"

Growling intensely, Isaac declared, "It doesn't matter how you came back to life—I'll kill you one more time! Let's settle this, you and me!"

Revenge pulsing within the bandicoot, Crash cracked his knuckles and said, "Have it your way…"

Suddenly powering up into his Lunar Form, Omega Isaac wasted no time in dashing over to Crash and planting his fist over the bandicoot's left eye. Crash didn't flinch, which caused Isaac's facial expression to twist.

Taking everyone by surprise, Crash repeated himself impatiently, "I said 'have it your way'! Do something, already!"

More furious than he'd ever been, Isaac spun around to kick Crash in the neck, only to hit air. Crash appeared behind him in a blur of orange and punched him square in the lower backbone. Looking more perplexed (and agonized) than he'd been all day, Omega Isaac hatefully growled to the bandicoot behind him, "W-What are you?"

Crash smirked as he prepared his monologue. "You mean who am I? My name is Crash, and you're going down—without a sound! And I'll pass you up before I _explode._ Breaking in two, I'll see you through! You won't keep me down when I crash through—!"

"Rip off another song, and I'll pop you!" Coco threatened from afar.

As Crash rolled his eyes peevishly at Coco, Isaac spun around again to swat the bandicoot away. Crash ducked effortlessly and rose again to deliver a powerful uppercut that sent Isaac high into the air at the floating precursors' level of altitude. Like a cannonball, Crash shot himself upward at the wolfman, far from finished with settling their personal dispute.

Isaac regained himself in midair, eyes locked on the quickly approaching bandicoot blur. Both combatants met each other with fist-on-fist contact; they flew throughout the city's skyline at lightning speeds, repeatedly dealing punches and kicks to each other in blurs of orange and gold. Crash seemed to have no problem blocking and countering each of Isaac's attacks. Isaac, however, was selectively dodging and receiving Crash's fists and feet, which in turn augmented his frustration.

The other heroes watched this battle unfold from the ground with great amazement, some not even able to follow Crash and Isaac's movements. They could hardly make out the rotating orange and gold auras twisting and turning around the city's heights like a pathless rollercoaster, sometimes crashing through buildings without pause and passing right over the flabbergasted heroes' heads.

Even Jeycko and Eurathaccus had trouble following Crash and Isaac's wild air-fight. While his black eyes darted from one building to the other, Jeycko muttered lowly to the general floating next to him, "Can you even see where they're fighting, General?"

"Sweet Saint Solomon, it's like trying to spot a hand grenade in a barrel of cucumbers!" General Eurathaccus exclaimed, tensely scanning the area for Crash and Isaac.

Just then, two twisting blurs of gold and orange rocketed past them, nearly taking the precursors with them. Thankful that that didn't happen, Jeycko commented, "Make that a _live_ grenade, General!"

When Crash and Isaac had passed them, they must have blown the general's military hat off. In a crazed state of paranoia, Eurathaccus repeated, "Live grenade? Take cover, private!" This resulted in him tackling Jeycko to the ground, which took some time considering how high up they were.

Crash blocked one last fierce punch from Isaac and struck the wolfman across the face four times before elbowing him toward the ground. Isaac landed on the street adjacent to the other heroes on his hands and knees, cursing loudly, "Damn that bandicoot!"

Crash had gracefully landed right next to Isaac, who quickly stood up and attempted to kick Crash's legs from under him, only to be countered and receive a heavy punch to his gut, a roundhouse kick across his jaw, another kick under his chin, a right hook into his cheekbone, a left jab into his nose, a reverse roundhouse kick into his other cheek, and a final fist that hammered into his mouth, sending the fallen wolfman skidding across the ground.

Meanwhile, the other heroes were more than satisfied to see Isaac on the losing end of the battle for once. They began cheering Crash Bandicoot on with whoops and applause—all except for Mario, who hollered indignantly, "Now someone tell me WHY he didn't do all those crazy fight moves before?"

Omega Isaac stood again, powering up like mad as he screamed, "I HATE YOU!"

"Yeah, yeah—blow it out your rear-end," Crash retorted dispassionately.

Isaac charged forward, throwing a golden punch that seemed to tear the air in half as Crash swiftly ducked and hooked the wolfman across the face, rattling Isaac's vision and dreadlocks. Isaac quickly recovered and fired a Mojo Blast at point blank range, bellowing, "DIE!"

Somehow, Crash was quick enough to swat the blast away at a nearby building and pound Isaac in the stomach with his fist. Crash followed up with a jumping spin-kick to Isaac's face as he attempted to yell, _"Tatsumaki Senpuu_…crud, I never say it right!"

Vaulting backward, Isaac regained his bearings and took to the vertical battlefield, flying high up above Crash and holding out his palm to release a barrage of golden Mojo Blasts. Staring up at the imminent storm of energy projectiles, Crash readily held out his own hand to summon an invisible air-push that exploded each deadly Mojo Blast before reaching him and simultaneously knocked the wolfman out of the sky. Isaac landed with a thud on this back.

Still unwilling to give up his pride, Omega Isaac threw himself back to his feet and air-dashed toward Crash in a curved, arching path. Not expecting such a quick reprisal, Crash thought quickly before Isaac collided with him and weaved around his incoming fist, consecutively delivering a painful kneecap to the wolfman's ribcage. While Isaac was hunched over in anguish, Crash clasped his hands together and used them like a hammer overtop Isaac's head, sending the fallen villain to the ground like a meteor.

**(Shao Kahn:** FLAWLESS VICTORY.)

Crash landed on the war-torn street in front of Isaac. Lowly, he told the motionlessly lying wolfman, "Give it up."

Lifting his face from the damaged street, Isaac asked dejectedly, "How…how did you get so much stronger?"

Jokingly, Crash answered offhandedly, "Eh, you know, I just doubled back to the gym, did a few curl-ups, and had a few of Crunch's 'I Can't Believe it's Not Steroids'."

Kneeling weakly, Isaac roared, "Don't you dare mock me!"

Isaac tried to stand back up to fight but failed in his footing. Watching the fallen wolfman nearly trip over, Crash warned, "Hey, take it easy, man. This fight's over."

"No…" Isaac began with a furious expression. "…it's just begun!"

The wolfman suddenly thrust out his hand, daring to summon a quick energy blast, but it never came. Either his energy was completely depleted, or he had suddenly lost the will to fight. Judging from his next move, it might have been the latter because he angrily slammed his fists on the ground in a fit of frustration and grief. He concealed his face underneath his dreadlocks.

As the heroes watched Isaac's meltdown, Crash couldn't help but sigh. "Isaac…how come you hate me so much? Did I cut in line in front of you one day and get the last ice cream cone? 'Cuz if I did, I know how that feels—"

"Shut up!" Isaac suddenly yelled, visibly glaring at Crash through his dreads.

"Isaac just tell me!" Crash retaliated. "There's no sense in fighting anymore."

Keeping his glare, Isaac miserably confessed, "…You took away my last chance at salvation."

"Wha'?" said Crash confusedly.

Weakly moving to a sitting position, Isaac sighed and stated, "When we had been banished to the Oblivion Realm by those Twilight clowns, I was subject to the realm's most horrible nightmares anyone could ever think of, and I hated Draksin for it. He channeled my hate into more power, which made me hate him even more. Truth be told, that cycle led me into the deepest despair, even if it did grant me godlike powers."

By now, the heroes had caught up behind Crash, obviously aware that the battle was over. Isaac continued, "When Draksin finally led us out of the Oblivion Realm, I had long since accepted that there was no hope for me…that is until I met someone. And, believe it or not, I loved her. Heheheh…and I actually thought she could love me, too."

"Sorry to hear that," Crash said sympathetically.

"I bet you are. Right before leaving, she told me she loved _you."_

Every hero let out a comical gasp. Taken aback, Crash couldn't help but crack a smile. "She loves _me?_ Gee, Mom was right…"

"Shut your mouth…" Isaac hissed.

"Listen, I don't even know this girl," Crash explained tactfully. "And if you ever see her again, you can tell her I'm taken." Whispering lowly, Crash told Isaac with a grin, "See that girl in the beanie behind me? Between you and me, I'm gonna ask her out."

Isaac's eyes widened. For the first time, his intense scowl had lessened to a curious grin as he whispered, "Between you and me, that girl looks exactly like the one I was just talking about. She completely took me off guard while I was fighting your friends."

Crash's ears flicked. Having a sudden notion, he inquired, "That girl you loved—was her name Naomi?"

His friendly grin returning to the hardened expression he kept ninety percent of the time, Isaac asked, "You know her?"

Holding his hands up defensively, Crash replied, "I only know her in dreams. And I've talked to her, like twice, through some kinda telepathic voodoo mumbo jumbo. Anyway, when I first met Cayla, I thought she was Naomi, too."

Calming back down, Isaac nodded and stated, "I see. I'll bet Draksin has something to do with…" Looking like he had just run into a brick wall, Isaac smacked himself on the forehead. "I completely forgot him. He would kill me if he saw me consorting with you."

Goofy stepped forward with a suggestion. "Why don't you just stop workin' for Draksin, Isaac?"

Daxter said, "It'll be fun workin' with the good guys for a change!"

Ratchet added, "Yeah, haven't you seen the error of your ways, yet? Punching innocent people is wrong, plain and simple."

Mario suddenly interjected, "Wait, wait, wait—did I just hear that he destroyed halfa my city and nearly killed me because he had GIRL PROBLEMS?"

Isaac managed to stand to his feet as he declared, "No, that was Draksin's orders. But no more. You have my word."

Coco coldly proposed, "I say we take turns kickin' the mess out of him until we're all even."

"Cool your jets," Crash retorted. Turning to the most skilled magician of the group, Crash requested, "Donald, since Isaac's on our side now, can you use your magic to heal him?"

It took awhile to persuade the duck mage to cast a Cure spell on the wolfman, especially since he kept grumpily blowing raspberries from his beak every time someone asked him to, but finally he held up his Save the Queen staff and reluctantly mumbled the healing incantation.

Now revitalized, Isaac flexed his hands and gave the other heroes guiltily looks. Some people, like Draksin's son, seemed happy to have him on their side. Others, like Link and Jak, didn't seem to keen on the idea, especially not Coco or Crunch. After all, he did kill their brother and friend at some point today. This and everything else he put these heroes through is what made him feel the need to apologize.

Sincerely, he told everyone, "I know I hurt every single one of you today, and for that I deeply apologize. I know I don't deserve any forgiveness, but I just want you all to know that I'll hurt no one else from this day on. And I regret the day I ever sold my soul to Draksin…"

Crash looked at Coco, who still seemed a little burned. Calmly, he tried coaxing her, "It's alright, Coco. If you think about it, Isaac made me stronger by killing me. I guess that saying about what doesn't kill you is wrong, amirite?"

"Whatever…" Hearing something from overhead, Coco looked up to spot five F-16 Fighter-Jets soaring through the air. Condescendingly, Coco asked, "The Air Force decides to show up now? What the heck took the U.S. government so long to respond?"

Sly replied, "I think you just answered your own question."

Crash looked at Isaac and said hastily, "We'd better get you back to our house. I don't think this country's gonna be too happy about you destroying a city and killing a bunch of people."

"I never killed anyone," Isaac made clear. "Before I blew up certain parts of the city, I always made sure to scare as many people as possible so they would evacuate. I only wanted to kill you…at first."

Coco brought up, "Well, what about those cars you hurled halfway across the city? You telling me that you made sure nobody was hit by one of those things?"

"Um…probably…" Isaac trailed off, becoming annoyed by Coco's negativity. "I'm not sure, alright?"

"Now's not the time for this," Crash declared. "We need to find Jeycko before those planes spot us."

In a forward march, Crash led the heroes (plus Isaac) down a nearly decimated street, doing his best to find two roaming blue people. Isaac suggested, "Maybe if we took to the skies, we'd be able to find them easier."

Crash nullified, "Yeah, but I don't want those jets shooting at us and…" Crash stopped dead in his tracks.

A little puzzled by Crash's behavior at first, Isaac looked forward and soon figured out why. Coming to an abrupt halt as well, Isaac was paralyzed with fear. The same could be said for everyone else. Sora, especially, was stricken with horror.

With a hellishly enraged look, the Dark One had materialized only meters in front of Crash, acidly glowering at a certain wolfman. Powering up like no one had ever seen before, purple flames erupted around his body like a gas burner. He had his arms crossed tightly over his chest, which moved in such a way that suggested his breathing was uncontrollable due to the intense rage in his eyes.

"Biff…" Draksin hissed venomously.

* * *

_Someone's gotta pay. Stay tuned for **Tearing Away!**_


	93. Tearing Away

_Okay, don't freak out…but a vampire and a werewolf fight in this chapter. See why I told ya not to freak out?_

**Chapter 93: Tearing Away**

"_What_…_are you_ _doing?"_ Draksin asked in a deadly murmur. Judging by his disorderly breathing, he was becoming more pissed off by the second.

Cayla whispered to Crash, "I think I've seen this guy before…but who is? He looks weird…"

Quickly noting the odd fact that Cayla might've known Draksin, Crash replied back in a low whisper, "I'll tell ya later. Right now…we might die."

Luigi must have overheard Crash because he screamed, "What? I can't die and come back to life like you, furball! Who is this lunatic, Mario?"

Figuring he was talking about Draksin, Mario replied nonchalantly, "Meh, just some guy who almost blew up my ship a while ago. No big deal."

Snapping from his trance of fear, Isaac clenched his fists and answered the dark lord, "I'm through being your slave, Draksin! You like to think that someday I'll take your place, but the truth is I could never be as heartless as you!"

Draksin couldn't believe his ears. All week, in between sessions of stalking people for fun, he couldn't stop thinking about how proud he was for his apprentice. No…his son. If there was anyone he remotely cared about in the world, it would have to be Isaac. Feeling the burning sensation of betrayal, Draksin looked off to the side with a scowl and lowly gave an ultimatum, "Biff, you have thirty seconds to kill at least three of these pathetic heroes, and maybe I'll forgive you."

The heroes didn't know what to expect from this ultimatum. However, they were relieved to not be let down and double-crossed by the wolfman. Steadfast in his decision, Isaac exclaimed, "No! I no longer do your bidding."

"Listen to your master…" Draksin commanded, losing all traces of patience.

Isaac continued to stand his ground, giving the dark lord a reproachful look. The other heroes more or less tried to do the same.

Draksin narrowed his yellow eyes. "Don't make me kill you…"

To seal the deal, Isaac shifted into his fighting stance.

His fiery aura combusting, Draksin uncrossed his arms and slowly walked forward, past a petrified Crash Bandicoot. He never took his eyes off of Isaac as the werewolf powered up into his Lunar Form once more, awaiting his ex-master's first move. After getting close enough, Draksin threw his right fist, of which Isaac blocked with his left hand and countered with his own right hook. Somehow, Draksin was quick enough to grab Isaac's incoming attack with his free hand and squeeze as tightly as he could, feeling the wolfman's finger joints crackle. Draksin maneuvered his other hand to grasp Isaac's left fist, soon compressing both of his ex-apprentice's furry hands in a tight squeeze. Shrinking to a kneeling position, Isaac let out a yelp of pain before Draksin drove his kneecap into his nose.

Isaac had flown backward past the rest of the united heroes, roughly landing on his back and nursing a nosebleed. Ruthlessly, Draksin marched in Isaac's direction, walking past a stupefied Coco, Goofy, Jak, Link, and Murray without giving them a single glance. Grabbing Isaac's throat, Draksin lifted him up and gave a fiery glare.

Isaac tried powering up his Lunar Form to possibly release himself, but Draksin's gloved grasp tightened like a snake around his neck. Losing air, Isaac involuntarily powered down to his regular first form, eyes slowly shutting.

Draksin lifted his fist and slugged Isaac in the face three times before landing a punch strong enough to send Isaac flying into the fifth floor of the nearest business building. Draksin was about to take off after Isaac until he suddenly stopped and looked up with a weird expression. Turning around to face Kairi, who was holding a frightened lion cub in her arms, Draksin asked with a disgusted look, "…Is that my son?"

Kairi shakily explained, "Oh, we sort of had a mishap—"

"Silence," Draksin interrupted. Turning back around, he mumbled, "I really do have nothing to be proud of in this godforsaken world…"

The dark lord vanished in a phantomlike puff of mist, leaving the heroes to wonder what fate befell their newest recruit, Isaac. After a quick quiet pause, Daxter piped up, "He's dead."

Hastily, Crash ran toward the building and exclaimed before super-jumping into its fifth floor, "Stay here! I'll go help Isaac!"

Another moment of silence later, Daxter added, "He's dead, too."

Crash landed in the abandoned office building's fifth story, noting the many empty cubicles scattered about. The lights were flickering, most likely from the fact that Isaac had crashed into a few power cables upon his landing. Crash ran deeper into the building until coming across a hallway where a dark figure was laying against the wall. Spotting the fallen wolfman, Crash quickly ran over to him and provided assistance in standing him up.

"Can you walk?" Crash asked.

"Yeah…" Isaac exhaled, leaning back against the wall. Grimly, he looked up and told Crash, "Listen, thanks for showin' me the way. I'm pretty sure Draksin's gonna kill me…"

"No, we can get you outta here!" Crash insisted, motioning for Isaac to get a move-on.

"Right," Isaac responded. Following Crash's lead, Isaac suddenly stated, "In case Draksin doesn't let me out of here alive, there's something you and your friends need to know about him. It's disturbing, but he does it to grant himself eternal youth."

"What is it?" Crash inquired.

"Draksin is…"

Crash proceeded to hear Isaac say it, but he had no idea what in the world it meant. It was a weird two-worded phrase he'd never heard before in his life. Perhaps it was some kind of bad word? But why would Isaac choose now of all times to call his ex-master filthy names? It didn't make sense, at least not in Crash's head. Before he knew it, however, Isaac kept going with his speech.

"This puts two of your friends in remote danger, Crash," Isaac explained. "Knowing Draksin, he wouldn't think twice—"

"Um, Isaac?"

"What?"

Trying his hardest to repeat the weird phrase Isaac had used, Crash asked, "What in the world is a repo-ductive loser?"

Sighing, Isaac slowed down, "A reproductive abuser is…listen, you should just ask one of your other friends! They're bound to know—just remember that the type of person Draksin is puts two of your friends in danger."

"Who?"

"Those two females. The one with the long ears and the other one with red hair. Remember to let everyone else know this, Crash because, chances are, Draksin will want to make sure I'm dead in the near future! You and I are the only one who know."

Probably more confused than he'd been at the start of the conversation, Crash unsurely replied, "Whatever you say…"

Reaching an outer wall, Isaac blasted a hole through it to escape. From the ground, the other heroes watched as Isaac and Crash both jumped down to join them again. When they did, Crash announced, "We need to find Jeycko and get the heck out of here!"

"Roger that," Sly Cooper replied, taking off at a run in the opposite direction of the building with everyone else.

While running, Riku asked, "Do ya think we lost him?"

Isaac shook his head and said, "Chances are he was watching me and Crash the entire time. He was a habit of doing that."

Suddenly, a black mist formed in front of Jak, who had been leading the fleeing heroes when he and everyone else slid to a halt. After taking his human form, Draksin snarled, "You know me so well, Biff."

Crash protectively stood in front of Isaac, ready to fight to the death again if he had to. However, Draksin wasn't interested in the bandicoot at the moment. Pouncing forward past Jak like a wild animal, the dark lord swiped Crash to the side with a swing of his hand and planted his gloved fist in Isaac's gut before reeling it up into his jaw. Driving his elbow into the wolfman's throat less than a second later, Draksin grabbed Isaac by the collar of his jacket before he fell down and threw him into a street light.

Teleporting in a gust of black mist, Draksin reappeared next to Isaac, lifting him up by his wrist until Isaac resided on his knees. Still holding his wrist, Draksin used his other hand to punch Isaac square in the face. Next, he punched him again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again.

And as the Dark One continued to horribly abuse Isaac, the heroes soon found out that their movements had been rigidly restricted…just like the time in Mavo's lab. Somehow, Draksin was using his dark powers to keep anyone from moving their limbs again. They had no choice but to watch Draksin pound the life out of Isaac. Even Coco, who held the most contemptuous feelings for the wolfman (beside Draksin, of course), couldn't bring herself to watch the massacre, shutting her eyes in anxiety.

New to this sort of torture, Cayla panicked, "Crash—why can't I move?"

"I think its something Draksin's doing," Crash strained to say.

After throwing his blood-smeared fist into Isaac's face one last time, Draksin angrily threw him across the street, away from the other heroes' restricted line of vision. Draksin wasn't finished with Isaac yet. He was going to humiliate him and make sure he suffered for betraying him, which is why Draksin temporarily released his psychic hold over the heroes.

He commanded, "All of you. Watch!"

Whether because he told them to or because they were in desperate need to move around, each hero turned around to witness an injured Isaac feebly hunched over on his hands and knees across the street. Less than a few seconds later, none of them could move yet again.

Draksin crossed his arms as he stood in front of the immobilized heroes, glaring daggers Isaac. His expression elevated to angered sorrow as he yelled to him, "Why, Isaac?"

Coughing, the hunched over wolfman glowered through his dreadlocks at Draksin. "Because…you made me into a monster!"

Draksin huffed. "Please. You were a monster when I found you!"

"No. You twisted my soul!"

"I gave you power!"

"You can take it back! When I watched you become a full-fledged Heartless in Oblivion, I knew for a fact that I could never become you. Face it, Draksin. You've got no one left!"

Eyes closed in rage, Draksin bellowed, _"You were a son to me!"_

Even with his movements completely restricted, a certain blue-eyed lion cub couldn't help but flinch at this remark.

Exhaustedly standing to his feet, Isaac breathed heavily to himself, a solemn expression plastered across his face. He said nothing; he only shifted back into his fighting stance.

Like a black blur, Draksin dashed forward at the wolfman, who quickly threw up his guard, but this wasn't necessary because Draksin had teleported behind him at the last second. In the blink of an eye, Draksin summoned his Sin Blade and…

"AAAAH!" Isaac howled. He looked down at the large blade continuing to protrude through his chest from behind. His breathing labored, Isaac looked terrified as he watched pint after pint of blood leak from his chest. Choking at first, he coughed out more blood, feeling his lungs fill back up with the liquid.

"Isaac!" Crash shouted, daring to break free from Draksin's psychic hold.

"Oh my god!" Keira exclaimed, desperately wanting to look away.

"WHOA!" Daxter yelled from his frozen position atop Jak's shoulder.

"_Mama-mia!"_ Luigi shouted in surprise. He clearly wasn't expecting to see someone get impaled through the back like the rest of the heroes.

Riku quickly commanded, "Kairi, don't look!" Still holding a shaky Lion Sora, she did as she was told, tightly shutting her eyes with a small whimper.

Draksin stood behind Isaac, tightly clasping the hilt of the sword that impaled his lower back. Raising his arm, Draksin lifted Isaac off of the blood-soaked ground. Suspended by the sword, Isaac weakly coughed out more blood as he struggled to look back at the dark lord. From what he could see, Draksin still wasn't happy. Grimacing, Isaac pitifully pled, "Draksin…please!"

"Go to Hell!"

Upon saying that, a purple flame erupted from the Sin Blade and spread to Isaac's body, burning him alive. Isaac screamed agonizingly as he became engulfed by the fire, his jacket, fur, skin, and bones burning completely to ash. Draksin turned to the rest of the pests, all of whom were still immobilized. With a scowl on his face, Draksin trekked toward them, dragging his bloody sword on the ground.

Before he took a step closer, Jeycko suddenly flew on the scene above the heroes, holding a crazed General Eurathaccus by his collar. Waving with a bright smile, Jeycko greeted, "Long time, no see! Unfortunately, we gotta jet. Later, Drakky!"

In a flash of light that blinded Draksin, the heroes and precursors were gone. He decided not to dwell on the fact that he seemingly killed Jeycko weeks ago, and there he was, clear as day, saving the heroes from him. Overhead, the fighter jets were getting closer to his location. Frowning at them, Draksin figured he could take out more of his brewing anger before he left this wretched place.

* * *

**-X-**

_Wumpa Island: 9:45 p.m.…_

A few hours later, after everyone had rested and calmed down from the long day's tiring and traumatizing events (and a certain lion cub was returned to his human form), they gathered in the living room for casual banter.

"You know what's funny, Mario? I sort of pegged you as a New Yorker, not someone from Chicago," Coco admitted.

Sitting on the armchair of the living room, Mario shrugged and said, "Eh, that's probably because Peaches and I used to live in Manhattan."

"Why'd you move?" Bentley asked curiously.

"In case you hadn't noticed, something crazy always happens to that city every two weeks," Mario replied. With a contemptuous laugh, he added, "Would ya believe we moved to Chicago to get away from New York's insanity?"

Crunch raised an eyebrow and pointed out, "Wait a sec, I thought it was called Liberty City. What gives?"

Mario sighed. "Luigi, give these mooks a quick history lesson."

Luigi gladly explained, "Well, America's founding fathers obviously couldn't make up their minds about what to call their eastern Big Apple city, so they settled on building three separate cities: New York City, Liberty City, and Empire City. New York City was founded first. Then came Liberty City, which sort of made fun of New York City in every way possible. And then there's the smaller town of Empire City, which is separated into three different districts."

Mario added, "And all three of those cities are insane."

"Really? Why?" Link asked.

As a response, Mario grabbed the remote and flipped on the television to the news station. One of the stations' reporters was…um, reporting, "The search for the escaped New York City terrorist Alex Mercer rages on as he leaves a trail of blood in his wake—"

Mario switched to another news station.

Another reporter…erm, reported, "Niko Bellic, a wanted hitman of Liberty City that no one seems to be actually looking for, was seen robbing his twelfth bank this month—"

Mario flipped it to another news broadcasting station.

A reporter was…er, reporting from a helicopter, "The battle of Empire City comes to a dramatic close as local superhero Cole McGrath defeats terrorist Alex Mercer—wait, this just in—a new challenger has arrived! Witnesses say he's a dark martial artist who goes by the name of Akuma—"

Mario switched off the television. "See what I mean? Insanity. Now if you guys don't mind, I'd like to go back to my nice n' decimated apartment in Chicago."

"Me too," Luigi agreed. "I'm really worried about Daisy."

Mario rolled his eyes. "She's fine, Luigi."

"No, I mean that I'm worried that she's worried about me!" Luigi explained. "She and I have this unbreakable connection of love, know what I mean?"

Mario turned to Jeycko and ordered, "Please teleport us before I strangle him."

Jeycko nodded and replied, "Got it, chief. You coming too, Micayla?"

A little unsure of herself, Micayla scratched her head and said, "I'm not sure. My house did get wrecked after all…"

Crash asked, "You saw your house get wrecked?"

"Uh, yeah…" Cayla lied.

"Son of a gun. We should go and help you fix it up!" Crash volunteered excitedly. "Your foster parents must be ticked about their house being ruined."

A little embarrassed, Cayla muttered to Crash, "Sure, um…can I talk to you outside, Crash?"

The pair strolled out the door, stopping on the front lawn under the starry night and turning to face each other. Crash asked, "What's on your mind?"

"First of all, I ran away from my foster parents about two weeks ago, so I don't have a house," Cayla explained impassively. "Second…well, there is no second. I'm homeless, Crash."

"No kidding? Where've you been staying this whole time?" Crash pried.

"The Spectrum Library," Cayla quietly confessed. "I usually sneak in at night."

"That doesn't sound too fun," Crash observed.

"Actually, sometimes I get to make my own little fort out of unread Twilight books and sleep in it, so that's at least a little fun…even if I have to sleep in mediocrity," Cayla responded with a shrug.

"Although forts are super-cool, you shouldn't have to live that way, Cayla," Crash stated, which caused the girl to smile. "You should have a place to live with a loving family. In fact…"

"In fact?" Cayla repeated with a friendly smile. She was waiting for him to say it.

"In fact…I have an idea!" Crash proclaimed.

Pretending to be clueless, Cayla said, "Really? Do tell."

"You should live with Mario and Luigi!"

Cayla deflated. In disbelief, she asked, "You want me to live with the mustache guys?"

Laughing contently, Crash said, "Sure! Mario may seem like a grumpy ogre who hates everything about life, but he'll come around one of these days!"

Sighing in impatience, Cayla implied into a question, "Isn't there some other place I could stay? Somewhere really close by?"

"Uh…" Crash thought hard for a few aching seconds, tapping his chin in deep contemplation. "Maybe the folks in Buru Village will take you in."

"Wow." Cayla rolled her eyes. As clearly as she could, she told him, "If you don't ask me if I'd like to stay at your house for a while, I'm going to punch you."

Laughing, Crash replied, "Easy, now, I was only jokin' around! Of course you can stay. We'll make room for ya…somewhere! How's that sound?"

"Good enough," Cayla accepted, glad the bandicoot wasn't as insensible as she thought he was.

"Wait till I tell Crunch and Coco! I am such a genius."

Later that night, when Jeycko had brought Mario and Luigi back to their loving fiancées in Chicago, Illinois, the remaining heroes and five precursors had gathered in the Bandicoot Home's kitchen for a long discussion…

* * *

**-X-**

**Demonic Entry #4**

**Is hatred worth dying for?  
Anyone who feels it's so is a total idiot.**

**More than one life to live…  
Several souls to feed on…**

**Another way to die…**

**Kenshen out.**

**-X-**

_I sure hope those make sense one day. Here comes a bombshell: I'm ending the story here._

…

_Yeah, I was being serious. __**BandiChron: Legends United**__ ends at this chapter._

…

…_Still here? Good. Because __**BandiChron 1.5: Fading Legends**__ begins here._

_No, I'm not joking. The final arc of the heroes' plight is a separate T-rated story. It's going to be in the same Crash Bandicoot category as this story, so there really isn't a huge change. Don't fret; I'm only doing this 'cuz the last arc is a bit darker than the rest of the story and I didn't want to change the current K-plus rating. But just because it's darker doesn't mean it's devoid of humor. That's still intact._

_Since I'm ending it now, I might as well ramble on about a few trivial things from this story. Have you noticed I tend to name chapter titles after various songs? No? We must have different tastes. Anyway, when I did that, I imagined that particular song in the chapter's background. Starting with…_

_**Chapter 30: From the Inside**__ – From the Inside, by Linkin Park (Reiden's theme song)_

_**Chapter 38: No Roads Left But One**__ – No Roads Left, by Linkin Park_

_**Chapter 49: Flashing Lights**__ – Flashing Lights, by Kanye West (Calypso's theme song)_

_**Chapter 50: Hit the Floor**__ – Actually, anything could go with that chapter…_

_**Chapter 52: The Catalyst**__ – The Catalyst, by Linkin Park_

_**Chapter 53: Getting Psycho **__– Meaning of Life, by Disturbed_

_**Chapter 60: Ninth Heaven**__ – Nine Thou, by Styles of Beyond_

_**Chapter 63: Wish**__ – Wish, by Nine Inch Nails (Calypso's theme song)_

_**Chapter 64: Ignition**__ – Ignition, by TobyMac_

_**Chapter 66: Get Down With the Sickness**__ – Down With the Sickness, by Disturbed (Dr. Mavo's theme song)_

_**Chapter 68: Not Afraid**__ – Not Afraid, by Eminem_

_**Chapter 70: Meaning of Life**__ – Meaning of life, by Disturbed (again)_

_**Chapter 71: The Catalyst II**__ – The Catalyst, by Linkin Park (again)_

_**Chapter 72: Cabin Fever**__ – Cabin Fever, by…Wiz Khalifa? Nah, he talks about smoking and stealing girlfriends too much._

_**Chapter 73: Dead and Gone**__ – Dead and Gone, by T.I._

_**Chapter 83: Chi-Town**__ – Basically any song by Lupe Fiasco._

_**Chapter 87: Power**__ – Power, by Kanye West (Isaac's theme song)_

_**Chapter 88: Indestructible**__ – Indestructible, by Disturbed (Isaac's theme song)_

_**Chapter 91: Till I Collapse**__ – Till I Collapse, by Eminem_

_**Chapter 92: Crash Through You **__– Crash, by Decyfer Down (Best song on here!)_

_And finally this chapter…_

_**Chapter 93: Tearing Away **__– Tear Away, by Drowning Pool (Draksin's theme song)_

_Yep, those are all the songs that I don't own. While I'm writing __**Fading Legends**__, I will also be going back through this story to correct grammar mistakes, make subtle changes, delete useless plotlines, etc. It's for the greater good, I suppose. One thing I've already changed is the future part on __**Chapter 2: Birth**__, mainly because Dark Ratchet mistakenly thought I was implying incest. This terrified the hell out of me…so I changed it up a little._

_Anyway, another notable change I'll make is keeping Draksin's appearance consistent. I know I hopped around the board with his looks in the early chapters (if you were here for those chapters before I eventually change/changed them). _

_I've rambled enough for one sitting. Don't forget to check out __**BandiChron 1.5: Fading Legends **__soon! Till then, I'm getting a job. Lord knows how I'm gonna pay for all the crap I want running on my Playstation this year…_


	94. Episode 1: Jak'd Up

_Welcome to the Chicago Episodes! These extra chapters are short episodes of what really happened during that week the heroes "peacefully" resided in Chicago before Isaac Bifford came in and completely f#&ed up everything. These episodes will mainly revolve around a conflict between Mario and his arch nemesis/enemy/douche bag, Bowser. Of course, Mario's going to need help from the other heroes living in his apartment complex to put an end to Bowser's street gang tyranny. While they're fighting the relentless Koopa Gang, expect horrible gags, quips, street fights, suggestive humor, strippers, sweet violence, illegal drug transactions, a kidnapping of Princess Peach here and there, and maybe even some unlikely friendships._

_This first episode takes place a few hours after the events of Chapter 84, after Isaac Bifford personally beats the mess out of the heroes._

**Episode 1: Jak'd Up**

Jak's body may have been completely healed over thanks to his Light Eco powers, but his pride was still very much wounded. Ever since losing the fight against the raging wolfman known as Isaac Bifford from earlier that morning, Jak had kept to himself on the roof of the apartment building, leaning on the roof's border and watching the sun go down past the city's skyline.

Shortly after he and the other heroes had arrived back in Chicago from their nearly one-sided battle against Isaac, Jak set his mind on thinking of a plan. He knew that they were in dire need of one if Crash, Coco, Crunch, and Aku Aku didn't show up in a week's time. By then, Isaac would certainly arrive in Chicago to annihilate them all, just like he'd sworn. Challenging Isaac again was obviously out of the question, seeing as how Jak and the others had gotten their butts handed to them the first time, and Isaac was going easy on them. Jak thought about alerting the town's authorities of Isaac's dawning advent, but civilian resistance would definitely lead to more destruction than the heroes intended to see.

Sighing languidly, Jak dropped his head onto his arms, which were resting on the banister of the roof's edge. Behind him, he heard the roof's doorway open up, beckoning foot steps that homed in on Jak's position. Remembering something, Jak realized Keira had wanted him to come down an hour ago for something. Only turning his head slightly, Jak said, "Sorry, Keira. I lost track of time."

"Don't apologize to me."

Expecting to see the blue-haired sage-in-training he was used to being with, he was taken by surprise to see a much shorter, crimson-haired girl taking the spot next to him. Giving Kairi an odd look, Jak asked emotionlessly, "What brings you up here?"

"Nothing. Just figured I'd check out the view," Kairi casually responded, gazing out at the other buildings in the distance. "Never been in a city before."

"It isn't that great," Jak gruffly replied.

A little put off by the blonde hero's caginess, Kairi said, "Guess you're not a fan…" Catching frostbite from Jak's attitude, she asked, "Did you want to be alone?"

Without the heart to spurn a friendly gesture, Jak relented, "No, it's fine. I don't mind."

Taking him up on that, Kairi turned back to the city's view silently. There was an awkward pause between them, mainly because the two weren't exactly good friends to begin with. The silence actually beginning to annoy him, Jak asked casually, "So what's going on downstairs?"

"A lot," Kairi replied monotonously. "Daxter and Clank are playing a dance videogame, Murray's testing out some of Peaches' new dishes, I think I saw Riku and Sora arm-wrestling, and Mario was on the phone with someone…"

"That sounds…uninteresting," Jak blandly stated.

Kairi shrugged. "I think Clank was winning the dance game."

Once again, another pause ensued between them. After a moment, Jak decided to blurt out, "So…what, are you fifteen, fourteen?"

Clearly taking this the wrong way, Kairi turned from Jak with her eyebrows furrowed, taking a step away from him.

Catching on to what she was thinking, Jak tried to amend his question, "No, no—I was just…never mind."

Suddenly, he received a light punch to his arm. Kairi told him, "Lighten up, Jak! I was only joking."

"Stupid kid," Jak hissed, shaking his head and cracking a smile. The roof's doorway opened up again behind them.

"Hey, guys." Jak and Kairi turned around to see a smiling Link emerge forth and wave to them cordially. Joining them, Link took his spot on the other side of Kairi, casually leaning forward on the roof's border with them. The entire time Link had walked over to them, Jak and Kairi had fixed the Hylian warrior with the strangest of looks. This caused Link to shiftily ask, "May I help you both?"

Link's overall appearance was a tad bit different than what Jak and Kairi were accustomed to seeing. Link had abandoned all of his equipment (yes, ALL of that junk), including his many weapons, his two arm guards, and even his green cap. He stood next to them in just his green tunic, white pants, chainmail armor, and boots.

Finally, Kairi replied to him, "We're…not quite used to seeing you…like this."

"Yeah, you look twenty pounds lighter," Jak observed.

Scratching the back of his scruffy blonde head, Link chuckled and said, "I needed to give my back a rest. So what are you guys doing up here?"

"Just checking out the city," the princess informed. Then, she snuck in, "And talking about our feelings."

Like he'd just been punched in the face, Jak exclaimed, _"What?"_

"Really, Jak?" Link asked. "That's very…brave of you, I guess."

Jak deflected sternly, "We were _not."_

Kairi kept up her charade, "Remember? You told me all about your fear of commitment and how you wished Keira would talk _to_ you, not _through_ you?"

Shaking his head again, Jak simply uttered, "Haha. Very funny."

"That's weird," Link stated. "I never thought you two got along so well."

Jak shrugged. "Me neither."

Suddenly, the roof's doorway opened up once more, revealing a very distraught plumber. Mario yelled, "There you are! I been lookin' all over for ya, Jak!"

Turning around and leaning his back against the border, Jak asked in his usual businesslike manner, "What do you need?"

"I keep getting threatening calls from Peaches' boss, saying that he'll cut her loose if I don't pay him some 'things' I owe him," Mario explained. "Long story short, Peaches can't know about these 'things' and I need to get Bowser offa my back before he fires her. Can you come down to the Goomba's Club with me while I try to pay off Bowser with some of those 'things'? You know, just for extra protection."

"What's in it for me?" Jak asked, lowering his gaze.

Rolling his eyes, Mario derisively answered, "I'll give ya a friggin' _power cell._ Will ya help me or not?"

"Uh…fine. Let's go."

As Jak and Mario walked through the roof's doorway, Kairi called after them, "Don't have too much fun!"

"How could I possibly have fun in a building full of strippers," Jak stated sardonically.

As the two disappeared behind the door, Link turned to Kairi and absentmindedly asked, "Seriously, what in the world is a 's'chipper'?"

* * *

**-X-**

"Alright, Jak," Mario hastily relayed, driving his plumber company van through the city's busier district with Jak in the passenger seat adjacent to him, "I just need you to come with me in the back of the Goomba's Club and make sure the deal goes smoothly. Normally, I'd ask Yoshi to help me out, but he's been trippin' off this rent money thing lately, and I don't think he'd oblige so easily. Anyway, we'll probably meet up in the back of the—quit foolin' with the stinkin' window!"

Keeping his balance on Jak's knee, Daxter froze with a sheepish expression, taking his hand off the buttons that lowered and raised the passenger seat window. Jak rolled his eyes with a grin.

Mario asked, "Any reason why you had to bring the weasel?"

"Whoa, whoa," Daxter began, obviously offended. "You can't separate the 'D' and 'J' Boys! Jak's completely brain-dead without me. Right Jak?"

Ignoring the ottsel, Jak asked Mario, "Is this Bowser guy coming alone?"

"Probably not. He's usually got two Koopa idiots flanking him wherever he goes. Doesn't matter, though. My boy Toad'll also meet us there. He's a bodyguard at the club."

Mario drove into the parking lot of said destination, parking his van and hopping out the vehicle. Jak and Daxter did the same, the latter of whom began energetically scrambling to reach the strip club's entrance. Dax didn't get very far, seeing as how Mario was the one to promptly step on the ottsel's tail, hindering further movement.

Mario glared and said, "You two ain't goin' nowhere. I don't want Peaches to spot yuz, so stay out here."

Crossing his arms peevishly, Daxter angrily mumbled, "Total…jip…"

Mario had already dialed a number on his cell phone and was speaking with someone. "Yeah, Toad? We're here. Clock out for a second and watch my back. Yeah, we're in the front."

A few seconds later, Toad exited the strip club, walking up to Mario and stating in his thick Jamaican accent, "Let's mek this quick. Toadsworth don't like working two shifts, seen?"

"Yeah, yeah, Toad," Mario said, half-listening to the mushroom man. "Just stay on me."

Led by Mario, the group of four strolled around the club's outer premises, arriving in the back near the dumpsters. Waiting behind the club was an intimidating reptilian man with a green, spiked turtle shell on his back. This man had fiery, red hair and—okay, we all know what Bowser looks like. The only thing new about him was his green feather hat, making him resemble somewhat of a pimp. On either side of Bowser was a beefed up member of the Koopa Gang, each looking possibly as dumb as they actually were.

Greeting Mario on arrival, Bowser said in a naturally booming voice, "Just the plumber I wanted to see! Mario, where have you been, ol' pal?"

"Traveling around the world, y'know…" Mario sketchily replied, eyeing the two goons on either side of Bowser.

"Traveling, eh?" Bowser taunted. "I hear Peaches would love to go traveling someday. It's a shame you didn't take her."

"See? Now why ya gotta do dat?" Mario suddenly exploded. "You always drag my fiancée into this! Just leave 'er alone, dang!"

"Never! Not till I get those mushrooms you owe me, deadbeat!"

Giving Jak, Daxter, and Toad reassuring looks, Mario turned back to Bowser and said, "Fine, I got it." Reaching into his pocket, Mario pulled out a clear bag filled with a gram of red mushrooms. "Here."

Bowser snatched those mushrooms from him, eyeballing the bag up and down. Raising an eyebrow, the Koopa Gang's leader glowered and said accusingly, "Where's the rest? You holdin' out on me?"

"Yeah, I didn't have enough when I got back from traveling," Mario cautiously explained. "I'll get you double the amount I owe you by…er, next week."

Laughing, Bowser looked to his fellow Koopa cronies and said, "You know the funny thing about next week? It ain't now!"

"Just take it easy, Bowser," Mario said calmly, gesturing slowly with his hands.

Slipping on some brass knuckles for both brawny fists, Bowser yelled threateningly, "How 'bout I take what you owe right here, right now! Koopas, mess these clowns up!"

Bowser immediately went for a right hook. Mario nimbly ducked under this attack and backed up in between Jak and Toad. Mario directed, "I'll get Bowser. You two hold off his idiot goons!"

Toad, the shortest of the group, cracked his knuckles and challenged one of the Koopas, "I'll send dis ruffian straight to his momma's front step!"

On Jak's shoulder, Daxter added, "Yeah, and me and Jak'll send this guy AND his momma straight to his grandma's front step!"

Toad looked over at Daxter insistently and countered, "Yeah? Den I'm gonna send this bunghole, his momma, and his grandmamma straight to his great-grandpapa's tombstone, seen?"

Daxter quickly responded, "Oh yeah? You're gonna sit there and watch me and Jak blast this moron, his momma, his grandma, AND his great-grandpappy's rotting corpse straight to the unmarked grave of his transvestite great-great-great thingamajig!"

"Oh yeah?" Toad yelled back. "I'm—"

"Hey!" exclaimed the goon advancing on Toad. "That's our deceased families your ranting about, you insensitive jerks!"

"How's this for sensitive?" Jak suddenly asked. As soon as that last word passed his lips, Jak grasped Daxter by his body and flung the ottsel straight into the face of the Koopa thug currently advancing on him. Immediately on impact, Daxter began scratching up the tortoise's face with animal-like ferocity, making sure to leave a trail of claw marks on every inch of his scaly skin.

"Yahoo!" Daxter yelped as he back-flipped onto Jak's shoulder again.

Using the disoriented Koopa thug's height to his advantage, Jak landed a hard fist into his stomach, waiting for the turtle-goon to lurch forward in pain and then spin-kicking him in the side of the head.

Toad had somehow managed to climb atop his opponent's head and repeatedly bounce on his skull, obviously irritating the gang member. Accompanied with each bounce was an old-school, arcade-sounding "ding," as Toad readily cried, "Tek this…you no good…ugly…Koopa!"

Meanwhile, Mario and Bowser were circling around each other with fight in their eyes. Out of nowhere, Bowser decided to leap into the air like a reptilian rocket, spreading his arms and legs above Mario's perplexed head as he bellowed, "King-Koopa-flop!"

"Ah, geez," Mario muttered, quickly diving to the side to avoid a month of being paralyzed in a hospital bed.

After rebounding back to his feet from his ground-shaking flop, Bowser made to tackle his plumber-nemesis; Mario adeptly jumped up, narrowly avoiding the scaly reptile's charge, planted both feet on top of Bowser's skull, and flipped over behind his opponent as Bowser came to a painful fall into the concrete. Wasting no time, Mario then grabbed Bowser by his stubby yellow tail and began whirling him around and around until finally releasing him into a parked sedan (of which Bowser's body completely demolished).

"How d'ya like dem apples?" Mario taunted, pumping his fist.

"Heads up!" Toad suddenly yelled behind him.

Mario instinctively sidestepped to avoid being crushed by the fallen Koopa gang member Toad was previously fighting. Just for kicks, Mario swiped his boot across the thug's face, thoroughly knocking him unconscious.

Now that Bowser and both of his thugs were down, it seemed that Mario, Toad, Jak, and Daxter were victorious in this little skirmish. Pointing his finger threateningly, Mario shouted, "I told ya not to mess with me, Bowser! I'll get you those stupid mushrooms when I feel like it! And you'd better not even think twice about harassing my fiancée, or I'll be back with even more friends like these guys!"

Mario was gesturing towards Toad and Jak, both of whom were doing their best to look tough. Bowser lazily stood to his feet, eyeballing the flanked plumber angrily before swearing boldly, "Someday, Mario, I will leave your life in ashes! I swear it!"

"Yeah, yeah—just beat it!" Mario commanded sternly.

Growling loudly, Bowser smacked his fellow gangsters in their faces until they reawakened, taking the lead as they briskly ran out of the strip club's parking lot.

"We sure showed dem!" Toad said, high-fiving Mario.

Mario advised, "You should clock back in before Peaches notices. See ya Toad."

As the Jamaican toadstool trekked back around to the front of the club, Daxter exclaimed, "Awright! Job well done, Jak!"

Mario agreed, "Yep, you fellas sure know how to bring the pain. Oh, and here's that power cell I promised ya…"

Taking a mystically spinning orb made from Precursor technology out of his back pocket, Mario casually tossed it Jak and Daxter's way.

All smiles, Jak and Daxter gave each other nostalgic looks.

As soon as the victory music played in the background, Jak reached for the power cell high above his head to start off the old routine. Meanwhile, Daxter was in the middle of an overly joyous break-dance, ending with the widest of grins.

"Haven't done that in a while," Jak observed with a smile.

* * *

**-X-**

_Yep, as soon as that Jak and Daxter HD Collection releases, you can bet I'll be seeing much more of that good ol' power cell dance on my TV screen. In HD._

_**Fading Legends** is getting pretty dark and stuff. This story lifts my mood. _


End file.
